The NBA has been exposed as a league unfavorable for an average basketball team to improve.
The Philadelphia 76ers are the perfect example of this. Not since the height of Allen Iverson’s time with the team have 76ers fans had a reason to think positively. An expensive Andre Iguodala contract, the disappointment of Andrew Bynum not playing a single game and consistent coaching turnover have made this past decade a bad one for basketball fans in Philadelphia. The only hope now is to hit rock bottom then rocket to the top.
How can the 76ers get better? They need to lose as much as possible in the 2013-2014 season. The more losses they get, the better draft pick the draft pick. Philadelphia fans have their eyes on one man in particular — a Canadian from the University of Kansas named Andrew Wiggins.
It does not take a soothsayer to figure out that Wiggins will be the No. 1 pick in the 2014 NBA draft. Possibly the most coveted draft pick coming out since LeBron James, the Philadelphia 76ers are going to need to be real bad first before they can get good with Wiggins.
The Philadelphia 76ers are already on their way to sliding down the standings and closer to bringing Andrew Wiggins to The City of Brotherly Love.
This past offseason began with the 76ers trading All-Star Jrue Holiday to the New Orleans Pelicans for Nerlens Noel and New Orleans’ first-round pick in 2014. Holiday’s absence will surely steal a few wins away from the 76ers, who finished the 2012-2013 season with only 34 of them.
Also helping the campaign Philadelphia 76ers fans are calling “Winless for Wiggins” was the choice to hire Brett Brown as head coach. Brown had only previously been an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs, having no head-coaching experience in the NBA. A new inexperienced coach mixed with new inexperienced players and the 76ers are well on their way to a writing the drafting Andrew Wiggins recipe.
For most Philadelphia fans it will be hard to root against their team. Outside of the 1993 Phillies, Philadelphia fans do not tolerate losing. Fortunately, the 76ers look to be bad whether anybody roots for them or not. Fans of the team can either stay positive then feel disappointed when they lose or find a new team to follow this year. Then there is always the option of forgetting about basketball altogether for a season. For the die-hard fan, this might be an impossible request.
The whole reason the “Winless for Wiggins” campaign started was because fans are so exhausted seeing the team sneak into the playoffs. Like a young man winning a pity date to the prom with a celebrity, the 76ers have no shot at going all the way in this setup. Andrew Wiggins may not be the answer, but he is hope. He is hope for the future of this franchise to get back to playing meaningful basketball, the first step toward a championship.
Tim Boyle is a lifelong Philadelphia sports fan who consistently writes about the Phillies, Flyers, Eagles, and 76ers for the Yahoo Contributor Network.
