The Philadelphia 76ers are one of the oldest teams in the NBA. They have a rich history with some of the greatest players to ever play the game, including Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Charles Barkley and Allen Iverson. They won their first championship as the Syracuse Nationals in 1955. In the 1966-67 season, the team won their second championship, this time as the Philadelphia 76ers. Their last championship would be in the 1982-83 season. Since then they would be unable to replicate their success, as they would reach the Finals only once during the 2001 campaign,where they would lose to the Los Angeles Lakers in 5 games.
In 1946, the Syracuse Nationals started playing in the NBL. They would continue to play in the NBL until they became part of NBL-BAA merger that became the NBA in 1949. By the early 50s, the team managed to build a strong contender consisting of Dolph Schayes, Paul Seymour, Red Kerr and Red Rocha. They would win the championship in 1954-55, which would be their only championship until they transferred to Philadelphia in 1963.
By 1966, the team was able to form a legendary core of future Hall of Famers in Wilt Chamberlain, Billy Cunningham, Hal Greer. They also had All-Stars Chet Walker, Lucious Jackson and Wali Jones. This talented team went onto finish the season 68-13, which was the best record in NBA history at the time. They would go on to win their second championship and later would be recognized as the best team in league history in the NBA's 35th anniversary celebration.
They struggled in the next few years after they traded Chamberlain. Philadelphia would bottom out in 1973, where they would finish with a 9-73 record. But by the beginning of the 80s, the team started to assemble another championship team centered around Hall of Famers Julius Erving and Moses Malone. In the 1982-83 season, they would win the NBA championship after a bold "prediction" by Moses Malone that the playoff would go "fo', fo, fo'." They would go and make a dominant run in the playoffs as they would have only one loss en route to their third championship in 76ers history.
The team would never be able to replicate their success for 25 years until they made it to the Finals in 2001 against the powerhouse Lakers. Allen Iverson would lead the team but lose in 5 games after a game 1 upset.
The greatest 76ers team in franchise history has to go to either the 1966-67 76er team or the 1982-83 team. Both teams can make solid claims because they were both led by Hall of Famers and they both had dominant runs en route to their respective championships. Therefore, I believe that both the 1966-67 team and the 1982-83 are two of the greatest teams in franchise history.
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