Tanking to the Top

Tanking to the Top
Author: Yaron Weitzman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2021-03-16
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9781538749739

Enter the City of Brotherly Love and see how the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers trusted The Process-using a bold plan to get to first by becoming the worst. When a group of private equity bigwigs purchased the Philadelphia 76ers in 2011, the team was both bad and boring. Attendance was down. So were ratings. The Sixers had an aging coach, an antiquated front office, and a group of players that could best be described as mediocre. Enter Sam Hinkie--a man with a plan straight out of the PE playbook, one that violated professional sports' Golden Rule: You play to win the game. In Hinkie's view, the best way to reach first was to embrace becoming the worst--to sacrifice wins in the present in order to capture championships in the future. And to those dubious, Hinkie had a response: Trust The Process, and the results will follow. The plan, dubbed "The Process," seems to have worked. More than six years after handing Hinkie the keys, the Sixers have transformed into one of the most exciting teams in the NBA. They've emerged as a championship contender with a roster full of stars, none bigger than Joel Embiid, a captivating seven-footer known for both brutalizing opponents on the court and taunting them off of it. Beneath the surface, though, lies a different story, one of infighting, dueling egos, and competing agendas. Hinkie, pushed out less than three years into his reign by a demoralized owner, a jealous CEO, and an embarrassed NBA, was the first casualty of The Process. He'd be far from the last. Drawing from interviews with nearly 175 people, Tanking to the Top brings to life the palace intrigue incited by Hinkie's proposal, taking readers into the boardroom where the Sixers laid out their plans, and onto the courts where those plans met reality. Full of uplifting, rags-to-riches stories, backroom dealings, mysterious injuries, and burner Twitter accounts, Tanking to the Top is the definitive, inside story of the Sixers' Process and a fun and lively behind-the-scenes look at one of America's most transgressive teams. Including exclusive interviews with Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, and Coach Brett Brown, Sam Hinkie, and more.

Perfectly Awful

Perfectly Awful
Author: Charley Rosen
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2014-10-01
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0803248628

During the 1972–1973 basketball season, the Philadelphia 76ers were not just a bad team; they were fantastically awful. Doomed from the start after losing their leading scorer and rebounder, Billy Cunningham, as well as head coach Jack Ramsay, they lost twenty-one of their first twenty-three games. A Philadelphia newspaper began calling them the Seventy Sickers, and they duly lost their last thirteen games on their way to a not-yet-broken record of nine wins and seventy-three losses. Charley Rosen recaptures the futility of that season through the firsthand accounts of players, participants, and observers. Although the team was uniformly bad, there were still many memorable moments, and the lore surrounding the team is legendary. Once, when head coach Roy Rubin tried to substitute John Q. Trapp out of a game, Trapp refused and told Rubin to look behind the team’s bench, whereby one of Trapp’s friends supposedly opened his jacket to show his handgun. With only four wins at the All-Star break, Rubin was fired and replaced by player-coach Kevin Loughery. In addition to chronicling the 76ers’ woes, Perfectly Awful also captures the drama, culture, and attitude of the NBA in an era when many white fans believed that the league had too many black players.

Tanking to the Top

Tanking to the Top
Author: Yaron Weitzman
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2020-03-17
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1538749742

Enter the City of Brotherly Love and see how the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers trusted The Process–using a bold plan to get to first by becoming the worst. When a group of private equity bigwigs purchased the Philadelphia 76ers in 2011, the team was both bad and boring. Attendance was down. So were ratings. The Sixers had an aging coach, an antiquated front office, and a group of players that could best be described as mediocre. Enter Sam Hinkie—a man with a plan straight out of the PE playbook, one that violated professional sports' Golden Rule: You play to win the game. In Hinkie's view, the best way to reach first was to embrace becoming the worst—to sacrifice wins in the present in order to capture championships in the future. And to those dubious, Hinkie had a response: Trust The Process, and the results will follow. The plan, dubbed "The Process," seems to have worked. More than six years after handing Hinkie the keys, the Sixers have transformed into one of the most exciting teams in the NBA. They've emerged as a championship contender with a roster full of stars, none bigger than Joel Embiid, a captivating seven-footer known for both brutalizing opponents on the court and taunting them off of it. Beneath the surface, though, lies a different story, one of infighting, dueling egos, and competing agendas. Hinkie, pushed out less than three years into his reign by a demoralized owner, a jealous CEO, and an embarrassed NBA, was the first casualty of The Process. He'd be far from the last. Drawing from interviews with nearly 175 people, Tanking to the Top brings to life the palace intrigue incited by Hinkie's proposal, taking readers into the boardroom where the Sixers laid out their plans, and onto the courts where those plans met reality. Full of uplifting, rags-to-riches stories, backroom dealings, mysterious injuries, and burner Twitter accounts, Tanking to the Top is the definitive, inside story of the Sixers' Process and a fun and lively behind-the-scenes look at one of America's most transgressive teams. Including exclusive interviews with Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, and Coach Brett Brown, Sam Hinkie, and more.

The Story of the Philadelphia 76ers

The Story of the Philadelphia 76ers
Author: Nate LeBoutillier
Publisher: The Creative Company
Total Pages: 36
Release: 2006-07
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9781583414200

This book highlights the history of the Philadelphia 76ers.

Season of the 76ers

Season of the 76ers
Author: Wayne Lynch
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2008-03-04
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1429977132

Season of the 76ers: The Story of Wilt Chamberlain and the 1967 NBA Champion Philadelphia 76ers, chronicles the unprecedented, record-setting championship journey of the team that finally stopped the Boston Celtics and became the new kings of the NBA. Destroying a dynasty. That was the mission of Wilt Chamberlain and 1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers. For eight straight years, the Boston Celtics had dominated the National Basketball Association. Each and every season during that stretch, a new NBA championship flag was hoisted to the top of the hallowed Boston Garden. No team had been able to stop them. Nobody thought any team could or would. Sportswriter Wayne Lynch tells the story of the legendary Chamberlain's personal triumph over Boston and their leader, Bill Russell, arch rivals who had annually thwarted Chamberlain's championship dreams and had left him branded a loser. But Chamberlain couldn't defeat the Celtics alone. He was reunited with fiery and focused Coach Alex Hannum, the only NBA coach ever to have beaten Boston for the championship. He was surrounded by the best supporting cast of his career: Hal Greer and Chet Walker, two talented offensive stars transplanted from a bygone NBA franchise; Luke Jackson, the league's first true power forward; Billy Cunningham, a sixth man loaded with instant energy and offense; Wally Jones and Larry Costello, a pair of basketball reclamation projects; and, Matty Guokas and Bill Melchionni, a couple of hometown rookies. Chamberlain remade his game, forsaking his own incredible scoring prowess in favor of handing out assists to teammates. In turn, the 76ers remade basketball history, rocketing to an unmatched 46-4 record out of the gate and not stopping until they reached 68-13, a regular season mark never previously achieved in NBA history--or even imagined back then. The book gives fans a fascinating, month-by-month look at the team's amazing season, a season that also saw Chamberlain pursued by both a rival basketball league and the heavyweight boxing champion of the world. It also recounts in vivid, play-by-play detail one of the most historic playoff series in the annals of the NBA. The 76ers battled the Celtics again in a much-anticipated post-season confrontation. But this time the results would be different. Amid chants of "Boston is dead" from the long-suffering, Celtics-hating fans at Philadelphia's Convention Hall, the 76ers won the series quickly and decisively. They went on to defeat sharp-shooting Rick Barry and the San Francisco Warriors for the NBA title. Packed with pictures, playoff box scores, and reproductions of the 76ers' championship yearbook, this book is not only the biography of a great team, it is a fun- and fact-filled sports collectible.

Philadelphia 76ers All-Time Greats

Philadelphia 76ers All-Time Greats
Author: Brendan Flynn
Publisher: North Star Editions, Inc.
Total Pages: 24
Release: 2020-01-01
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1634941845

The team that was born the Syracuse Nationals filled a gap in basketball-crazy Philadelphia in 1962. Along the way, the Philadelphia 76ers have won NBA titles and employed some of the greatest and most colorful players in league history. From the pioneers of the 1950s to the global superstars of today, get to know the players who made the 76ers one of the NBA’s top teams through the years.

The Story of the Philadelphia 76ers

The Story of the Philadelphia 76ers
Author: Sara Gilbert
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010-09
Genre: Basketball
ISBN: 9781583419571

This book follows the history of the Philadelphia basketball team from its start in 1946 to today.

The Story of the Philadelphia 76ers

The Story of the Philadelphia 76ers
Author: Jim Whiting
Publisher: Creative Education
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2023
Genre: Basketball
ISBN: 9781640266391

"Middle grade basketball fans are introduced to the extraordinary history of NBA's Philadelphia 76ers with a photo-laden narrative of their greatest successes and losses"--

Be Where Your Feet Are

Be Where Your Feet Are
Author: Scott O'Neil
Publisher: St. Martin's Essentials
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2021-06-01
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 1250769884

Scott O'Neil, one of America's most successful sports executives, shares seven principles to keep you present, grounded, and thriving. When we’re moving at 115 MPH, we rarely see the wall coming. But it comes for all of us and when it does, we grasp for lessons, for meaning, for purpose. Each moment (good or bad) and each win or loss, provides us an opportunity to learn, and if we choose to take it, that opportunity can change our lives-and the world- for the better. The human spirit craves connection. Authenticity. Belonging. Touch. Gratitude. Purpose. We need to make our interactions count. Whether it’s the death of a friend, loss of a job, a bad break-up or the isolation of COVID-19, those who manage to be where their feet are will grow, stretch and emerge stronger, smarter and more prepared as we find peace and gratitude in the pause. In Be Where Your Feet Are, Scott O’Neil, CEO of the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils, offers his own story of grief and healing, and shares his most valuable lessons in what keeps him present, grounded and thriving as a father, husband, coach, mentor, and leader. Scott avails his network to share poignant life lessons from an array of people including professional athletes and sports executives, a world-famous Movie Director, Saudi royalty; and his teenage daughters, among many others. Be Where Your Feet Are provides a humbling and vulnerable peek behind the curtain as well as a framework, anecdotes, and exercises to guide the reader towards self-discovery. A gifted storyteller with an uncanny ability and willingness to bare raw emotion, Scott weaves in and out of stories that have left deep imprints on him and are written to lift and inspire.

Built to Lose

Built to Lose
Author: Jake Fischer
Publisher: Triumph Books
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2021-05-04
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1641256079

"From front offices to college campuses, Jake Fischer takes you on an engrossing tour of the NBA in its latest golden age, when some of the most captivating teams won by losing." —Lee Jenkins, former Sports Illustrated NBA writer An insider account of modern NBA team-building, based on hundreds of exclusive interviews A single transcendent talent?can change the fortunes of an NBA franchise. One only has to recall the frenzy surrounding recent top pick Zion Williamson to recognize teams' willingness to lose games now for the sake of winning championships later. It's a story that weaves its way behind closed doors to reveal intricate machinations normally hidden from public view. Backed by extensive reporting and hundreds of interviews with top players, coaches, and executives, Jake Fischer chronicles secret pre-draft workouts, feuding between player agents and executives, surprising trade negotiations, interpersonal conflicts, organizational power struggles, and infamous public relations fiascos, making for a fascinating look at the NBA. The definitive account of the NBA's tanking era, when teams raced to the bottom in the hope of eventually winning a championship.