I never understood why we boo Michael Carter-Williams. Most Sixers figures that came to inspire reflexive jeers from the Process faithful do see for their ideological odiousness (Doug Collins, Spencer Hawes) or for having frustrated to the point of exhaustion (Jerryd Bayless, my son Sauce Castillo), but MCW never really did either. It was unfortunate that he wasn't 10 percent better, sure -- that would've been cool -- but the player he was was still one of the two or three best on an exceedingly lousy team, right until he was traded at the very last moment we could still refer to him as the reigning Rookie of the Year with a straight face. (Also, he was better on the Bucks than you remember, at least before he got hurt. He won them a playoff game once!)

Mostly my affection for MCW endures because the first game of The Process is still probably my favorite Sixers game. I wasn't around for the '83 championship and wasn't paying attention for the Stepover in '01, so my choices are basically between the Andre Iguodala shot against the Magic in '09, the Lou Williams shot against the Heat in '11, the time we almost beat the Warriors (Hall of Fame nominee!) in 2016, and the T.J. Game in last year's playoffs. T.J. Game is of course compelling, and that Lou Williams shot nearly turned me around on him as a Sixer (lol not really), but nah, gimme the first game of The Process. That was the game that started it all, even though it really didn't start anything.

Lest we've forgotten, let's flash back to October 30th, 2013. Sam Hinkie had taken charge of the wayward franchise at the draft four months earlier, trading All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday for an injured Nerlens Noel and a future first-rounder, and drafting MCW with the 11th pick. With the calamitous Andrew Bynum trade having left the team depleted the year before, the roster was built around lottery leftovers Thaddeus Young, Spencer Hawes and Evan Turner. No one on the squad was over the age of 25. Ties had been severed with Doug Collins, and after several months of due diligence and/or thumb twiddling, Brett Brown was hired as the Sixers' head coach roughly four hours before their season tipped off. The Sixers ranked 30th in Grantland's preseason power rankings, and 29th in their League Pass rankings. It was gonna be a long season.