Sixers

One of the Worst Takes is that We Shouldn’t Celebrate the 2001 Sixers Because They Didn’t Win the Title

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jan 26th, 2026 · 11:51 AM EST

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Last week, the Sixers announced the list of players set to appear at Saturday’s 25th anniversary celebration of the 2000-2001 team that went to the NBA Finals. The group includes Allen Iverson, Eric Snow, Aaron McKie, even Theo Ratliff and some of the peripheral players who contributed to a memorable run.

Of course, some of the miserabs on social responded with stuff like:

“Don’t like it. It’s like participation trophies. They didn’t win a championship. It’s actually kinda pathetic for a proud city like Philly. Imagine the Cowgirls or the Celtics doing this.”

I saw these comments in a few different spots, so I don’t think this amounts to reprimanding a strawman. There’s always been a generic question of “what are we celebrating?” when we honor a team that didn’t win a title. But these guys won 56 games and the Eastern Conference and took a road game off of one of the greatest Lakers teams of all time. People sometimes forget that Los Angeles squad went 15-1 in the postseason with prime Kobe and Shaq, which was a playoff run resembling what the “Fo Fo Fo” Sixers accomplished in 1983. They swept the Chris Webber and Peja Stojakovic Kings and then swept the Tim Duncan and David Robinson Spurs in consecutive series. They were incredible.

That Sixers team was a scrappy group led by a small guard who shot the hell out of the ball. They didn’t have superstars outside of A.I., maybe Dikembe Mutombo, who was in his mid-30s at that point and didn’t join the team until the Ratliff and Toni Kukoc trade. It was largely a group of unheralded guys like Snow, McKie, Tyrone Hill, Jumaine Jones, etc. They played GREAT defense and grinded out some low-scoring results, winning a ton of games in which they only scored in the 80s and 90s.

It sounds cliche, but they really were a Philly team. “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.” And they captivated the entire region and had people tuning in every night. Every kid had an Iverson poster and we alternated between watching the A.I. Sixers and a Flyers team that was still a playoff contender. You kind of had to be there to really understand it, because you look back now, look at the roster on paper, and wonder how the hell that group won 49 games in 1999-2000 and then 56 games in 2000-2001. It really was a team with resilience and grit and determination surrounding the one talismanic player in Iverson.

So, why wouldn’t we celebrate that? If we only celebrate title-winning teams in Philadelphia, then there’s not a lot to celebrate, especially among the winter squads. We’ll be rolling out Dr. J and Bob “The Hound” Kelly from now until the world ends. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but these players and these teams resonate in other ways. You’ve got the 2000-2001 Sixers, 1993 Phillies, the entire Donovan McNabb and Andy Reid Eagles era, and the Legion of Doom Flyers. You’re excluding a lot of great players and great memories if you limit these celebrations to title-winning teams only, and even then, who gives a shit? The franchises make up the rules in terms of who to celebrate and who to honor. If you don’t like it, turn the game off at halftime when they bring those guys onto the floor for a round of applause.