Saw this floating around and it’s a good snapshot of sustained basketball ineffectiveness:

 

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Reeks more when you lay it out like this. Even more pathetic that if you took it all the way back to 2004, two full decades from where we are now, the Sixers’ position wouldn’t be any different. They haven’t been past the second round since Allen Iverson and company got them to the finals in 2001.

Then you look at some of the smaller market teams that at least made a conference final. Orlando Magic? That was the 59-win team with Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson, and Vince Carter. Memphis Grizzlies? They got there with Marc Gasol and Mike Conley before running into the San Antonio buzzsaw of 2013. The Hawks obviously got through by beating the Sixers, which will forever be a travesty, and the Blazers and T Wolves both did it in the past five seasons.

The Sixers are stuck on a tier that includes perennial trash like the Wizards and Nets. At least the Knicks are stuck down there, too, so a slight, pathetic consolation. And we can always hang our hats on the fact that we’re not Kings, Hornets, or Pistons fans. Charlotte last won a playoff series when Dennis Hastert was House Speaker.