Sixers legends Julius Erving, Bobby Jones weigh in on current team’s title chances
CAMDEN, N.J.–The Philadelphia 76ers have just as good a chance as anybody to be hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy at the end of the 2022-23 season. They are led by two stars in Joel Embiid and James Harden and the two of them give the Sixers a very good chance at ending the 40-year title drought for this franchise.
The last time the Sixers won a title was in 1983 when they were led by Julius Erving and Moses Malone in order to get the job done. The Sixers swept the Los Angeles Lakers in the finals that season with Malone taking home final MVP honors after his famous “fo, fo, fo” proclamation. It signified that the Sixers would sweep all of their playoff opponents on their way to a title.
Erving and key bench piece Bobby Jones gave their thoughts on where this current team stands as they look to end the drought and bring home an NBA title for the Sixers.
Julius Erving on the title chances
“I think they got a good shot. This is probably the best shot that I’ve seen in recent years. Obviously, when they lost to Toronto a few years ago, that was a great opportunity. It seemed like things were really going our way until that miracle shot that Kawhi hit and it was kind of like a ‘we owe you’ one situation. That was theirs to take. Then the whole Jimmy Butler situation which is another conversation. He’s been to the finals and Sixers have not so he was a guy that was here. That was not handled all that well, but this team, they seem to be very resilient. They are definitely dynamic in terms of having a blend of weapons. We got our big guy, the top scorer in the league. (Tyrese) Maxey is a dynamo, Harden who is a former MVP and on any given night can be the dominant player on the floor. No matter who you put out against.”
Dr. J on the role players
“Then the role guys. Tobias (Harris) does what he’s supposed to do. I like watching them. I like when they go to the bench and (Shake) Milton comes in. I just like that there’s this chemistry there and there’s an undeniable desire to want to win, go want to succeed. Bobby made a good point about don’t worry about the refs. It’s not about the refs. It’s 5-on-5. It’s not 5-on-7. When we’d go to Boston, we always thinks the refs were against us, but that’s in your own psyche. When you play well, you play the game the right way. Nobody’s against you except the other five guys in the other uniforms.”
Bobby Jones on the title chances of the current team
“Well, I think they have a good chance. A very good chance. I do think that when we played, we had fewer really good teams to compete against than they do right now. I look back and it was Boston and it was Milwaukee and Los Angeles, but other most teams, we weren’t really concerned about most of the teams. They’ve got a lot of teams. They got Milwaukee, they got Boston, they got about five teams out west that are difficult to play against, but I’ve really been encouraged the last several weeks on how their focus has been. So I think they can wear teams down.”
