It’s bizarre for a certified sports activities franchise to plot a yearlong birthday party for a workforce that didn’t win a championship.
However additionally it is uncommon {that a} workforce of gamers represents the vibe and tradition of a town so correctly because the Philadelphia 76ers did again in 2001.
Right through the 2025-2026 NBA season, the Sixers will honor the twenty fifth anniversary in their mythical 2001 workforce. The birthday party kicks off with the go back of Hip-Hop, the muscle-bound rabbit mascot who debuted in 1998 and represented the workforce for 13 years. Right through the 12 months the workforce will put on jerseys and have court docket designs from the 2001 season, and it’s going to honor the workforce and its superstar participant, Allen “The Answer” Iverson, right through a reunion sport on Jan. 31, 2026.
As a popular culture student and director of a program in essential sports activities research, I steadily educate concerning the affect of Iverson, whom I used to be a large fan of right through my fundamental college, highschool and faculty years in Philadelphia. I even named my puppy guinea pig after the Corridor of Popularity participant.
A brand new generation
The Town of Brotherly Love is understood for its passionate sports activities enthusiasts. Even supposing this pastime has been interpreted via some as competitive, if no longer barbaric, Philadelphians’ wisdom of and loyalty to their groups hasn’t ever waned – at the same time as they persisted a 25-year championship drought throughout their 4 main skilled groups.
Sooner than the Philadelphia Phillies gained the International Collection in 2008, Philadelphia hadn’t had a championship sports activities workforce since 1983. In that 12 months, the Sixers disrupted the dominance of the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, who gained each different championship from 1980 to 1988.
The Philadelphia 76ers play the Boston Celtics on the Spectrum on Nov. 19, 1983, in Philadelphia.
James Drake/Getty Photographs
The Sixers remained aggressive for a couple of extra years prior to Moses Malone was once traded in 1986 and Julius Erving – “Dr. J” – retired in 1987. Within the decade that adopted, a contentious courting advanced between enthusiasts and Sixers proprietor Harold Katz. It intensified when Katz traded fan favourite Charles Barkley in 1992.
In 1996, Comcast Spectacor, proprietor of the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers, purchased the Sixers from Katz and ushered in a brand new generation for the franchise. The workforce moved to a brand new area and employed their former teacher Pat Croce, who had a minority stake within the workforce, as workforce president.
That very same 12 months, the Sixers gained the draft lottery for the primary select of the NBA draft, incomes the rights to draft a 6-foot guard from Georgetown College. Iverson no longer best altered the fortunes of the franchise however changed into a cultural phenomenon whilst representing a town identified for being brash and gritty.
Policing Black athletes
Black athletes, specifically, are frequently anticipated to have interaction in respectability politics – a technique wherein marginalized persons are anticipated to desert portions of their very own tradition to assimilate to the dominant, frequently white, tradition’s expectancies. Most commonly white workforce house owners and enthusiasts need them to behave a undeniable approach or steer clear of talking out on societal problems akin to race.
Some of the earliest, and maximum visual, demanding situations to this in sports activities was once Jack Johnson, a Black heavyweight boxing champion in 1908 who refused to stick to social and financial expectancies of African American citizens within the early twentieth century. Johnson taunted his combatants within the ring and flouted his wealth outdoor of it. Maximum controversially, he had romantic relationships with white girls.
Later, boxing legend Muhammad Ali and Boston Celtics heart Invoice Russell additionally confronted grievance for talking out on civil rights problems.
Like Johnson, Ali and Russell had been focused via federal legislation enforcement. Ali was once suspended from boxing for 3 years for his refusal to sign up for the army and combat within the Vietnam Struggle. Each Ali and Russell had been additionally tracked via the FBI, and Russell discovered his area within the Boston house vandalized, although nobody was once charged.
Heavyweight champ Muhammad Ali leaves the defense force induction heart in Houston on April 28, 1967, after refusing to be drafted.
AP Picture
Iverson, in the meantime, was once focused via the legal justice device prior to he even reached the NBA. When he was once in highschool, he was once a best school recruit in each basketball and soccer at the same time as he navigated poverty and instability.
On Feb. 14, 1993, Iverson was once at a bowling alley in his homeland of Hampton, Virginia, when a combat broke out. He and 3 buddies had been recognized via witnesses, in spite of questionable proof that they had been concerned within the altercation. Iverson was once charged with “maiming by mob” – against the law that firstly focused lynching in Virginia. He was once discovered accountable and sentenced to fifteen years in jail.
After public outcry and a top profile interview with Tom Brokaw, Iverson was once granted clemency and presented the chance to play for trainer John Thompson at Georgetown College.
AI’s authenticity and magnificence
Within the overdue Nineteen Seventies some enthusiasts and commentators complained the NBA was once turning into “too Black,” so within the Eighties the league took a color-blind solution to advertising and marketing gamers akin to Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson. Race took a again seat to cash, as gamers of that generation in large part have shyed away from discussing Black tradition.
As soon as drafted into the NBA, Iverson conveyed an authenticity hardly observed in fashionable sports activities, the place brokers and public relation pros organize their shoppers’ symbol and make sure they are saying the precise issues to the media.
He had visual tattoos and started dressed in his hair in cornrows in his rookie 12 months. He additionally embraced rap tune and hip-hop tradition and magnificence.
Allen Iverson, heart, poses with Atlanta rapper Younger Jeezy on the 2005 BET Awards.
Johnny Nunez/WireImage by means of Getty Photographs
His fearless play at the court docket bolstered this symbol. He had relentless power, took difficult pictures and put his frame at the line.
In Philadelphia, sports activities enthusiasts additionally favored his loyalty to family and friends along side his willingness to talk his thoughts.
Just like its superstar participant, the Sixers franchise additionally embraced hip-hop tradition, represented in its new rabbit mascot in 1998. Even supposing basketball has had a reference to hip-hop because the Nineteen Seventies, the NBA’s company sponsors had been uneasy about this courting. The Sixers’ choice to lean into this tradition was once notable.
There was once worry, specifically from league commissioner David Stern, that Iverson’s and the Sixers’ include of hip-hop tradition would alienate positive stakeholders. Stern clashed with Iverson and applied a league-wide get dressed code that barred T-shirts, shorts, chain necklaces, shades or even headphones in public appearances. The ban perceived to goal the NBA’s younger Black gamers.
However, the Sixers attracted new enthusiasts and constructed their workforce round Iverson’s distinctive offensive abilities, surrounding him with unselfish, defense-focused teammates. They employed Larry Brown as head trainer and bought Philadelphia local and Temple graduate Aaron McKie, who changed into one in every of Iverson’s closest teammates.
The 2001 Finals
The Sixers began the 2000-2001 season with a 10-game successful streak and later, after a win in opposition to the New York Knicks on Feb. 1, 2001, had a 35-11 report. In a loss on Feb. 7 to the Houston Rockets, heart Theo Ratliff injured his wrist and needed to go through season-ending surgical treatment. Over the following two weeks the workforce gained six directly video games and Iverson was once named the MVP of the 2001 NBA All-Superstar Recreation.
Spotting the desire for a large guy, alternatively, the Sixers traded 4 gamers for best defender and long term Corridor-of-Popularity heart Dikembe Mutombo.
Because the workforce adjusted to its roster adjustments, they stumbled to a 15-11 report within the closing 26 video games of the common season, however had been nonetheless in a position to earn the highest seed within the Japanese Convention. The playoffs ate up town with Sixers fever.
In spite of its best seed, the workforce constantly felt like an underdog, reflecting the total recognition of Philadelphia. Every collection was once a combat, and the Sixers needed to play 18 out of the imaginable 19 video games on their method to the NBA Finals in opposition to the Lakers. They escaped removing video games two times.
Allen Iverson grabs Shaquille O’Neal of the Los Angeles Lakers as Dikembe Mutombo seems to be on right through Recreation 3 of the NBA Finals on June 10, 2001.
Jeff Haynes/AFP by means of Getty Photographs
Recreation 1 of the Finals was once the defining sport of the season. The Sixers battled to an additional time disillusioned, a sport identified for the “step-over” after Iverson hit a shot after which took an exaggerated step over the Lakers’ Tyronn Lue, who had fallen down whilst seeking to protect the Sixers guard.
The workforce misplaced the following two extremely aggressive video games prior to accidents and the Lakers’ ability proved too tough to triumph over.
Watch the notorious ‘step-over’ at 2:00.
A Philly legend
The Sixers have no longer returned to the Finals since 2001, whilst each the Phillies and Eagles have since gained the International Collection and Tremendous Bowl on behalf of town.
Even supposing Iverson by no means introduced house a championship, and he endured to be polarizing – marked via moments akin to his notorious “practice” rant – he nonetheless ranks as one of the vital widespread Philadelphia athletes of all time.
Sixers enthusiasts like myself are excited for the chance to appear again at this workforce that introduced town in combination at the beginning of the brand new millennium. It’s additionally an opportunity to rejoice the way forward for a workforce led via a thrilling workforce of guards – Tyrese Maxey, V.J. Edgecombe and Jared McCain – who glance to recapture town and revitalize the legacy of Iverson and the 2001 Sixers.
