In 1946, ownerDanny Biasone founded the franchise as theSyracuse Nationals, a member of theNational Basketball League (NBL).[3] The Nationals qualified for the playoffs three times then joined the NBA in 1949, one of seven NBL teams to merge with the rivalBasketball Association of America (BAA). The Nationals qualified for the playoffs in every season played in Syracuse, advancing to three Finals and winning their only title while in Syracuse in1955.[4] For the 1963–64 season, the year following the departure of thePhiladelphia Warriors for San Francisco, the Syracuse Nationals relocated to Philadelphia as the 76ers.
The franchise has played 57 seasons as the Philadelphia 76ers, with 36 playoff appearances and two championships.[1] The Sixers acquired Philadelphia-nativeWilt Chamberlain in 1964 from the Warriors and defeated Chamberlain's former team inthe 1967 Finals, but suffered a sharp fall from grace due to the loss of Chamberlain to retirement andBilly Cunningham tothe ABA:[5] in 1972–73 the team won only nine games, the fewest in an 82-game NBA season. Under coachesGene Shue and Cunningham, and the on-court leadership of forwardJulius Erving, the 76ers returned as a power quite rapidly, achieving winning records in all but one season from 1975–76 to 1990–91. The Sixers won their last title in1983 againstthe Los Angeles Lakers, sweeping them in four games.
During the 1990s, the 76ers declined to an 18–64 record in 1995–96 before popular high-scoring guardAllen Iverson led the team back up the table. In 2000–01 the Iverson-led 76ers won fifty-six games and defeatedthe Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference finals to reach the2001 Finals but lost tothe Lakers four games to one in the best-of-seven series. The 76ers were a middle-of-the-road team on-court during the following dozen seasons, but by the early 2010s financial problems led incoming general managerSam Hinkie to clean out any expensive players in order to save money and gain draft choices for the future.[6] Lacking on-court talent, the 76ers set many records for ineptitude in the following three seasons, becoming the second NBA team after the 1995–96 to 1998–99 Grizzlies to suffer three consecutive seasons winning fewer than twenty games. In 2015–16 by going 10–72 the 76ers suffered the ignominy of having suffered the two all-time worst 82-game NBA season winning percentages.[a]
