Philadelphia 76ers Team History

The playoff overtime loss on March 26, 1963 would prove to be the last game for the Syracuse Nationals, as investors Irv Kosloff and Ike Richman purchased the team from Danny Biasone moving the team to Philadelphia to become the 76ers, filling the void left by the Warriors. Syracuse was the last of the medium-sized cities housing an NBA Team, but it was too small for a professional team to be profitable. The NBA thus returned to Philadelphia one year after the Warriors had left for San Francisco. Schayes was named head coach, a post he held for four years as the first player-coach.

In the 1967 – 1968 season, with a new home court in the form of The Spectrum to defend their championship, once again the 76ers made it back to the NBA Playoffs and in the rematch of the previous year’s semifinals, the 76ers held a 3-1 series lead over the Celtics, before the Celtics staged a dramatic comeback to beat the Sixers in seven games. Opened as the Spectrum in fall 1967, Philadelphia’s first modern indoor sports arena was built to be the home to accommodate the existing Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA. The Spectrum’s seating capacity it eventually accommodated 18,168 for NBA games.

NBA Finals – 1967
The 1967 NBA World Championship Series was the championship series of the 1966 – 1967 National Basketball Association season, and was the conclusion of the 1967 NBA Playoffs. The best-of-seven series was played between the Western Conference champion San Francisco Warriors and the Eastern Conference champion Philadelphia 76ers. This was the first championship series in 11 years without the Boston Celtics, who were defeated in the Division Finals by Philadelphia.

NBA Finals – 1983
The 1983 NBA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association’s 1982 – 1983 season. This was the final postseason using the 12-team format, before the NBA expanded the postseason to 16 teams the next season. The tournament concluded with the Eastern Conference champion Philadelphia 76ers defeating the Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers 4 games to 0 in the NBA Finals. Moses Malone was named NBA Finals MVP.

It was also during the season that the Sixers played one home game at their old home, the Wachovia Spectrum. The Sixers won 104–101 over the Chicago Bulls on March 13, 2009. The game was played to provide the final curtain call on the Spectrum, which was scheduled to be imploded on New Year’s Eve 2009. The Wells Fargo Center officially seats 20,318 for NBA.

On July 13, 2011, Comcast-Spectacor reached an agreement to sell the 76ers to an investment group led by Apollo Global Management co-founder Joshua Harris. Harris’ group paid $280 million for the franchise. The sale did not include any ownership stake in the Flyers or Comcast Sportsnet. The Sixers will continue to play their home games at the Wells Fargo Center for the foreseeable future. Rapper Will Smith (a Philadelphia native) and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith are notable minority owners. The new ownership group decided to retain Head Coach Doug Collins and President of Basketball Operations Rod Thorn. Ed Stefanski, who served as the team’s General Manager since 2007, was relieved of his duties.