In recent years — I’d say for the past decade or so — NBA fans have gradually begun to become accustomed to the idea of super teams dominating the NBA. From the Boston Celtics of the late 2000’s to the Warriors of today, these juggernauts have often been labeled as super teams — and rightfully so. Normally consisting of at least one superstar with other stars alongside him, it’s fairly simple to identify which teams fall into these categories in modern times.

However, something that many fans fail to recognize is that super teams are not some new, revolutionary thing; they have existed for decades upon decades of the league’s history. There are teams, such as the Celtics and Lakers of the 80’s or the Jordan-led Bulls, that are starting to gain more and more recognition from fans, with them occasionally receiving the honor of being labeled a super team. However, one team that always seems to be swept under the rug is the 1983 Philadelphia 76ers.

A major factor which contributed to this super team being somewhat forgotten is due to the time in which they existed. The 1980’s are a period of time in which most fans only remember the legendary dynasties of the Celtics and Lakers, as at least one of these teams was featured in every NBA finals series for the entirety of the decade. Additionally, one of these coinciding teams won nearly every championship of the decade, with them only failing in 1983 to 1989.

The latter of those two, won by the Pistons, has been maintained much better than the 76ers’ win in 1983 throughout history, most likely due to Detroit having a memorable nickname and also going back-to-back in 1990. Even though they won just a single championship, the Philadelphia 76ers were a perennial contender which assembled one of the greatest teams of all time in the summer of 1982.

How the Team Was Formed

The process of creating this team from the ground up began in 1976, when the faltering ABA merged with the NBA. The 76ers, at the time, were led by Doug Collins and George McGinnis, who, like Dr. J, was a superstar in the ABA. The team was good, having won 46 games, but nothing special, as they were ousted in the first round fairly easily. This is where Julius Erving comes in. He was at the peak of his ABA career at the time of the merger, with the small forward having just been awarded the 1975-76 ABA MVP before winning the championship. However, the Nets, due to their location, were bound to get into trouble.

Since the Nets were stationed in New York, the Knicks demanded that they pay a fee of 4.8 million dollars for “invading” the Knicks’ territory. The Nets had no choice but to oblige, making the new franchise desperate for money. They originally offered the Knicks Julius Erving in exchange for the charge being dropped, however, the long-time NBA franchise declined. Following this, the 76ers swooped in and offered a measly 3 million for Julius Erving, which the Nets had no choice but to accept. Following this incident, the Nets, unsurprisingly, instantly became a bottom-feeder while Philly immediately prospered.

In just their first season after acquiring the ABA legend, the 76ers progressed all the way to the finals before falling to Portland. After another season of similar success, which saw Philly reaching the conference finals, they decided to shake up their roster in the form of a trade. In doing so, they acquired the second piece to their championship — Bobby Jones. In 1978, the Denver Nuggets traded Jones, who was an All-Star and a defensive juggernaut, to the 76ers for George McGinnis.

Although this seemed like a strange move at the time, McGinnis played just 4 more seasons in the NBA, as he faced a rapid decline after his first season in Denver. On the other hand, Bobby Jones would spend the rest of his career in Philadelphia, where he would end up making an All-Defensive team in every season excluding his last. Also in 1978, Maurice Cheeks, the team’s future All-Star point guard, was drafted with the 36th overall pick after the 76ers struck gold. This made way for another strong defensive player, who would eventually be inducted into the Hall of Fame, to be seamlessly affixed to the team.

While the team did do just a bit worse in the immediate future due to the loss of McGinnis, after just one season of falling early in the playoffs they returned to their status of the best in the eastern conference. I say this, of course, because Philadelphia bounced back from a semi-disappointing season to win 59 games and reach the finals. While they did fall to the Lakers, this turn of events formerly announced that Philadelphia was expecting a promising future. After reaching the finals for the second time in just 4 seasons, the 76ers, yet again, made a tremendously good decision in the offseason. This time, that move came in the form of adding Andrew Toney, a future All-Star, to their star-studded roster.

You see, all the way back in 1976, around the time the 76ers acquired Julius Erving, they also shipped off Mel Bennett to Indiana in return for a future first rounder. This first rounder would end up being the 8th pick in the 1980 draft, which was promptly used to select Andrew Toney. With their new and improved roster, Philly continued to make big strides in their conquest to reclaim their glory from 1955 and 1967. This season, their new achievement was finally surpassing 60 wins with Julius Erving. To coincide with this, the athletic superstar was awarded his first and only NBA MVP.

While the team failed to make the finals, as Boston narrowly scraped by them by just a singular point, they did have young players, in Cheeks and Toney, who had yet to reach star status. Coincidentally, the team who came out of the western conference was the Houston Rockets. This team was famously led by Moses Malone, a superstar who Philadelphia would soon become very familiar with… In the 1981-82 season, Moses’ and Dr. J’s roles flipped, with the former winning MVP and the latter reaching the finals. The 76ers, for the 3rd time in just 6 seasons, made the finals but lost in 6 games.

Knowing their time window was running short, as their franchise superstar, Julius Erving, was now in his 30’s, the team made a daring move. In the 1982 offseason, the team traded for Moses Malone, who at this point had already won 2 MVPs. In return for the legend, Houston received Caldwell Jones and a future first rounder -- which eventually turned into Rodney McCray. This trade would end up going down in NBA history was one of the most successful heists ever performed. Caldwell Jones was just a backup in Philly, and Rodney McCray was nothing but a solid starter in his prime. On the contrary, Moses Malone was one of, if not the best player in the NBA, and he was hungry to win.

In the 1982-83 season, the Philadelphia 76ers accomplished something that few other teams have done in NBA history; they had a total of 4 All-Stars on the same team. These 4 were Julius Erving and Moses Malone, who were superstars, along with Maurice Cheeks and Andrew Toney, who were making their debuts in the All-Star game this season. All of these legendary decisions made by the 76ers front office culminated in the 1982-83 76ers, one of the greatest teams to have ever been assembled.

This season saw Philadelphia winning an astounding 65 games, which was good enough for the best record in the entire association. As a result of their efforts, Moses Malone was named the MVP nearly unanimously, and Bobby Jones, who was a starter prior to the acquisition of Moses, was awarded the NBA’s first-ever Sixth Man of the Year Award. As a testament to how well the team had been built and perfected, 3 players managed to be selected as a member of the All-Defensive First Team, with those 3 being, as expected, Malone, Cheeks, and Jones. Just before the playoffs had started, Moses Malone, during an interview, brought to life a quote which would soon be heard around the world.

"Fo', Fo', Fo'”

By this, he meant “Four, four, four,” as in sweeping each opponent that stood in the path of Philadelphia. In 1983, the first seed in each conference received a bye in the first game, which is why it didn’t have potential to be more. The 76ers, believe it or not, nearly lived up to this daring premonition by their MVP. By the end of the playoffs, Philly had lost just 1 game to The Bucks in the conference finals, and even then it took their 2nd lowest scoring game of the entire playoffs just to lose by a rather small margin of 6 points. Following the dispatchment of the Bucks, the 76ers went on to mercilessly dethrone the Los Angeles Lakers in 4 games. While it did end up being “Fo’, Fi’, Fo’,” this playoff run is still one of the greatest to have ever been performed, cementing this team’s place in history.

Comparisons to the Modern Warriors

The only team that can really compare with the 1982-83 76ers is none other than the current Golden State Warriors. Both featured 2 superstars combined with 2 All-Stars, and, just like the 2016-17 Warriors, the 76ers featured 2 superstars who combined for 3 straight MVPs. For the Warriors, as I’m sure just about everyone remembers, Kevin Durant won in 2014 before Stephen Curry took home the award in both 2015 and 2016 before the pair teamed up. Likewise, Julius Erving won the MVP in 1981 before Moses Malone repeated in 1982 and 1983. While the continuity of this is shifted a year, as the Warriors’ duo won 3 before the team up and the 76ers’ last was during the team up, this is a comparison which many NBA fans hate on the Warriors for today.

Additionally, both teams feature an All-Star third-wheel shooting guard who averaged roughly 20 points a game. For Golden State, it’s Klay Thompson, and for the ‘83 76ers, this was Andrew Toney, who averaged 19.7 points per game in their championship season. To further prove the striking similarities between the two teams, they each featured another All-Star who was an elite defender that doubled as a great playmaker, those being Draymond Green and Maurice Cheeks. To top all of this off, both teams had one of the sixth men in the league who was also a fantastic defender, with the examples here being Andre Iguodala and Bobby Jones.

All of the resemblances are shocking, and they should really be something that becomes more recognized throughout the NBA community. After DeMarcus Cousins’ decision to join the Warriors this past offseason, it is possible that the 2018-19 Warriors could become the first team in NBA history to have 5 members of the All-Star team in a single season -- but what if I were to tell you that the 1982-83 76ers nearly did just that? As previously discussed, the team had 4 members of the All-Star team in their championship season, with those being Moses Malone, Julius Erving, Maurice Cheeks, and Andrew Toney, however, their Sixth Man of the Year, Bobby Jones, was certainly an All-Star caliber player as well.

Prior to the team’s trade for Moses Malone, Jones had been an All-Star in both 1981 and 1982, but, once Malone arrived, the elite defender received fewer and fewer touches, with his usage rate dropping to 15% when it had previously hovered around 20%. As a result of that and playing a decreased amount of minutes, he was not selected to be an All-Star, however, his skill level was practically the same. While the team had just 4 members suited up for the annual game, in spirit they did possess 5 star-level talents, which is what could very well happen with Golden State next season if Cousins is injured for too long or he takes away stats from Klay or Draymond.

Why Has This Team Been Forgotten?

With a team stacked with such tremendous talent, it was quite confusing to me when I discovered that many NBA fans have actually forgotten the dominance of this team. Many of them just remember Dr. J and Moses, and even then they may be viewed as worse than they were in actuality due to Malone often being underrated by casual fans. In addition, the team features a forgotten great in Bobby Jones and an obscure star in Andrew Toney; 2 players who most aren’t even aware existed.

If you recall, towards the start of this blog I mentioned how the team has been forgotten due to the 80’s just being remembered for the Celtics and the Lakers, and this definitely holds immensely true. One such “fan” that I encountered on Hardwood regarding this subject was rather ludicrous… This can be found in the screenshot above, where they declared that the 1983 76ers were not even a top 50 team in eastern conference history. Additionally, when I mentioned that the team had 4, and possibly 5, stars, they said, “Bo Jackson and Mo Cheeks? And that one white guy who coached the Sixers before Brown are not all-stars.”

This, as you can imagine, is far from the truth… Props to him for actually remembering Maurice Cheeks, but the clear disrespect to Andrew Toney, and especially Bobby Jones, is insane. For instance, he described Bobby Jones as “that one white guy who coached the Sixers before Brown” when that’s not even him, that’s Doug Collins. While Collins was a member of the 76ers, he’s far from Jones and had been retired come 1983. With all of this in mind, I encourage you to please pay more attention to the 1983 76ers, as the pure depth and strength featured within their core is incomparable to just about every team in NBA history.

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