Category: Sixers/NBA

Julius Erving, an all-time 76ers great whose No. 6 is retired by the franchise, will celebrate his 76th birthday on Sunday.

As the basketball legend marks a milestone, here’s a look back at the 10 best moments of Erving’s career with the Sixers:

The Doctor is in

The Sixers acquired Erving from the New York Nets at the start of the 1976-77 NBA season, the first season after the league’s merger with the American Basketball Association was completed. The ABA’s Nets, one of four teams incorporated into the league, were forced to move on from Erving in order to pay the fees associated with entering the NBA.

The Sixers paid the Nets $3 million to acquire Erving, who was already a three-time ABA MVP by the time he joined the Sixers. The forward was also a season removed from winning the 1976 ABA dunk contest with a legendary leap from the free throw line.

All-Star MVP

Erving got off to a good start in his first NBA season with the Sixers, averaging 19.9 points before the All-Star break in 1976-77. But that season’s All-Star Game in Milwaukee was a point of arrival for the former face of the ABA.

Erving scored 30 points and nabbed 12 rebounds in 30 minutes, earning the game’s Most Valuable Player trophy despite the East losing to the West, 125-124. Erving, who was named an All-Star in each of his 18 ABA and NBA seasons, won the NBA’s All-Star MVP again in 1983.

Finals slam

Erving led the Sixers to the NBA Finals in his first season with the team, averaging 21.6 points and 8.5 rebounds in 1976-77. One of the high-flyer’s most memorable dunks came in Game 6 of the Finals against the Portland Trail Blazers. In the second quarter, Erving dribbled through three Trail Blazer defenders, leapt toward the rim and threw down a right-handed jam over the outstretched arms of Bill Walton.

Despite an NBA playoff career-high 40-point outing from Erving, Walton’s Blazers won Game 6, 109-107, to claim the 1977 NBA championship.

Baseline scoop

Walton wasn’t the only Hall of Fame center Erving antagonized in the NBA Finals. His iconic “baseline scoop” move against the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980 Finals was a crafty way of getting around the shot-blocking ability of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

In the fourth quarter of Game 4, Erving drove to the right side of the basket, leapt while underneath the backboard and tossed an underhanded shot that hit the left side of the backboard and rolled in.

“I didn’t realize how long I had been in the air, but I knew I didn’t have any legs left and I didn’t have any hang time left, so I fell on the floor,” Erving said to ESPN in 2019. “Just another move.”

The scoop was two Erving’s 23 points scored in Game 4, helping the Sixers to a 105-102 victory that evened the series at two games apiece. The Lakers won the series, 4-2.

Most Valuable Doctor

Erving won his lone NBA MVP award in the 1980-81 season. At the time, Erving was the second Sixer to win the league’s top individual honor alongside Wilt Chamberlain.

Erving finished top-five in MVP voting five times as a Sixer, but the three-time ABA MVP only won the award once after the merger. Erving averaged 24.6 points, 8.0 rebounds and 4.4 assists in the 1980-81 season. He led the Sixers to a 62-20 regular season record, tied for the NBA’s best with the Celtics. The Sixers lost the 1981 Eastern Conference finals to Boston, which would go on to win the title that season.

Rock the baby

Another iconic Erving dunk, the “rock the baby” slam, came against the Lakers at the Spectrum in January 1983. Erving picked up a loose ball along the sideline just past center court, drove toward the rim and cradled the ball with his right hand before bringing it up to the rim for a dunk over Michael Cooper.

“I wanted this dunk to live on forever and to prove that people could fly,” Erving said to Sports Illustrated in 2023 on the slam’s 40th anniversary.

The Sixers held on for a two point win in overtime against the Lakers in what turned out to be a preview of the 1983 Finals.

Four, five, four

Moses Malone was the Sixer that predicted a full sweep of the 1983 Playoffs — “four, four, four” — after the team earned the top seed with a 65-17 regular season record, but Erving helped his center’s postseason prediction (almost) come true as the Sixers marched to the third championship in franchise history.

Erving and the Sixers were 12-1 in the playoffs, including a sweep of the defending champion Lakers in the 1983 Finals. The Sixers’ only loss was to the Bucks in the Eastern Conference finals. Erving averaged 18.4 points in the Sixers’ 13 playoff games, including a 21-point, six-assist performance to complete a sweep of the Lakers in Game 4.

At the time, the Sixers were the only team to complete a postseason with one loss. The 2001 Lakers and 2017 Warriors are the only teams since to take only one loss in the postseason.

Downing Dallas

Erving sank two game-winning shots at the horn during the final stretch of the 1985-86 regular season, which was his penultimate NBA season. The first shot came in Dallas on Feb. 28, 1986.

With two seconds remaining in a tie game, Erving inbounded the ball from the sideline to Maurice Cheeks. Cheeks passed it back to Erving, who launched a heave from beyond half court. The shot went in, and the Sixers won, 123-120.

Beating Boston

Erving’s next game winner came a little more than a month after his heroics in Dallas. Erving’s Sixers were down two to Larry Bird’s Celtics at the Spectrum on April 6, 1986.

The Sixers fouled Bird with seven seconds remaining, sending the league’s best free throw shooter to the line with a chance to make Boston’s lead four. Bird missed both, leaving the door open for the Sixers to win the game, 95-94, on an Erving three-pointer as time expired.

Jersey retirement

After the Sixers’ opening game of the 1986-87 season, Erving announced he would retire at the end of the season. In total, Erving played 11 seasons for the Sixers and averaged 22 points over 836 games with the team.

At the time of his retirement, Erving was the third-leading scorer in Sixers history, though he has since been passed by Allen Iverson. Erving is still the franchise’s all-time leader in blocked shots with 1,293 rejections in a Sixers uniform. The franchise retired his No. 6 jersey on April 18, 1988, in a ceremony at the Spectrum.

Erving also had his No. 32 retired by the Nets in honor of his ABA career, making him one of 16 players in NBA history to have their jersey retired by multiple franchises. Erving was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993.

No one in the NBA has played more minutes than Tyrese Maxey this season.

Without Joel Embiid in the lineup, even more of the Sixers’ offensive load lies on Maxey’s shoulders, and it’s leading to inefficiency in his shot-making.

To play better with — and without — Embiid, coach Nick Nurse said he needs Maxey and the Sixers to play faster. Earlier this season, the Sixers played with “tremendous speed.” But as the season has progressed, they’ve moved away from that play style.

“I just talked to [Embiid] for a long time, and he said the same thing,” Nurse said. “[Embiid said], ‘They need to play faster, even when I’m out there. They wait for me too much. They need to blast ahead and take opportunities that are there, and if they’re not, I’ll get down there eventually to get into some of the halfcourt offensive stuff.’”

On Thursday, Cameron Payne, playing in his first game back with the Sixers after starting the year with Serbian team KK Partizan, got the first minutes in relief of Maxey in the second quarter and again in the fourth. The Sixers lost Payne’s fourth-quarter minutes, 11-7, and Payne missed all three of his three-point attempts in his return to the NBA. But he dished out four quick assists in the second quarter and has familiarity with much of the roster.

Payne played 31 games under Nurse after the Sixers acquired him at the trade deadline in 2024. While some things are similar to his last stint, Payne says there still are several new plays to learn, and he needed to get back into NBA shape after the time away from the league.

“They play a lot faster,” Payne said. “I feel like we played fast when I was here, but they play a lot faster now.”

Nurse hopes they’ll get even quicker. But to maintain that, Maxey and VJ Edgecombe especially need to have fresher legs. Edgecombe already has played more games this season than he did all of 2024-25 at Baylor.

Nurse said that Maxey and Edgecombe’s speed and athleticism are among their biggest strengths, and the Sixers need to leverage it even more to find success down the stretch. But if players like Payne are able to come in and become playmakers on offense, that can help buoy the team in tough minutes and give Maxey more rest opportunities.

“I thought early in the year, our guards were creating offense for each other a lot more,” Nurse said. “Remember all the VJ to Tyrese, all the stuff with [Quentin Grimes], and that has gotten a little less.

“But I think that’s what [Payne] did last night. He came in and just hit through, ran the screen roll, got in the paint, boom, it’s out. Or even just simple throw-aheads, catch-and-shoots. … That’s what we need, is more creation for others, more hitting the paint and not trying to play through the gauntlet and then hitting the paint and getting it out a little.”

On media day at the start of the season, Nick Nurse said the Sixers were building their game plan around not having Joel Embiid in the lineup. If they had him, great. If not, no big deal.

That plan worked in early stretches. The Sixers opened the season a perfectly respectable 10-7 in their first 17 games without Embiid on the floor, while going 7-7 in their first 14 games with the former MVP.

When the calendar turned to 2026, Embiid suddenly was available more than he had been in a long time, missing just three games in January. Embiid played at an All-Star level, and the Sixers went 10-7 for the month. But they dropped all three games Embiid missed.

Now, with Embiid sidelined with right shin soreness, the Sixers have lost three straight, the latest being a home loss Thursday to Atlanta.

“I don’t anticipate it being a long time,” Nurse said of how long before Embiid returns. “I’m pretty optimistic about it.”

The Sixers are 1-7 in their last eight games without Embiid.

“He’s a walking 30 points,” VJ Edgecombe said. “We miss Joel; he’s a big presence. He requires so much gravity, so now all the attention is on Tyrese [Maxey], and we’ve got to make his job easier.”

With Embiid out of the lineup, defenses hyperfocus on Maxey, who regularly faces double teams and traps. Theoretically, that should open up space for other players, like Edgecombe, Kelly Oubre Jr., and Quentin Grimes.

Without Embiid, Edgecombe said, the burden is on the rest of the players to create more of their own offense, instead of relying on the pick-and-roll game with Embiid or on just finding Embiid in the paint.

“It’s easy, man,” Edgecombe said. “You can just hit Joel, and he’s going to score. No one can guard him.”

Those stylistic differences from game to game even are challenging for more experienced players like Maxey. Dealing with defensive coverages in games without Embiid has led to a decrease in Maxey’s overall efficiency.

Since Jan. 1, Maxey is shooting 46.8% from the field. In the games without Embiid, he has shot 38.4%. Maxey’s total points scored don’t take too much of a hit — he’s averaged 26.5 points in 2026, and that number only drops to 24 in games without Embiid — but it takes a lot more effort to get him there.

“We’re playing multiple styles of basketball,” Tyrese Maxey said. “That’s why I said for myself a couple games ago, it’s weird. I’ve had a successful year, but I’ve played three different roles.”

A big part of that inefficiency, Nurse said, is that Maxey’s shots inside the three-point line are virtually always contested. Without Embiid, Maxey is the Sixers’ primary offensive engine, and he draws a huge amount of respect from opposing defenses.

The extensive time with Embiid back in January “probably” is forcing the team back into a learning curve as they adjust back to playing without him, Grimes said.

But the biggest point of emphasis has been for Embiid’s teammates to just keep taking their own shots.

“Guys got to make plays,” Maxey said. “Just got to go out there and be aggressive. Don’t be nervous or scared to make a play and make a mistake. Be aggressive, man, go out there, and just play.”

Tyrese Martin was in the crowd of Allentown’s new PPL Center in October 2014, when the 76ers played a preseason game in the city for the first time in 40 years. The teenage Martin even got a photo with K.J. McDaniels, then a Sixers rookie.

Fast forward more than a decade, and Martin on Thursday morning stood in a back hallway of Xfinity Mobile Arena following his first shootaround as a Sixer.

Martin, a 26-year-old combo guard, joining the NBA team closest to his hometown on a two-way contract potentially completes the Sixers’ post-trade roster. They also signed veteran point guard Cameron Payne, the former Sixer who had been playing in Serbia, to a rest-of-season deal and forward Dalen Terry to a two-way contract. Those moves fill the roster spots vacated when the Sixers traded Jared McCain and Eric Gordon at the deadline earlier this month and converted forwards Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker from two-way contracts to standard deals.

Martin was inactive for Thursday’s 117-107 loss to the Atlanta Hawks, with coach Nick Nurse noting that the coaching staff “obviously [has not] seen hardly any of him yet.” Terry, who signed his deal just before the All-Star break, also did not play.

Payne, however, immediately got back on the floor. Though he missed all three shot attempts, the 31-year-old totaled five of the Sixers’ 17 assists in less than 10 minutes.

“I’m figuring them out,” Payne said of his new teammates. “… I feel like we played fast when I was here [for the end of the 2023-24 season], but they play a lot faster now.”

Nurse said before Thursday’s loss that he also views Martin primarily as a point guard. He averaged 7.3 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.9 assists in 37 games with the Brooklyn Nets, then was released to free up roster spots at the trade deadline.

Before a November game against the Sixers, Nets coach Jordi Fernandez described Martin as a “grown up” and “rock star” inside Brooklyn’s deep rebuild and was a player to whom coaches could direct young teammates and say, “Look how he does it.” Nurse on Thursday also commended Martin’s basketball IQ, along with his 6-foot-6, 215-pound frame.

Yet on a Sixers team vying for playoff positioning — their 30-25 record is sixth in the Eastern Conference entering Friday — Martin most believes he can make an immediate impact as a defender who can pressure the ball and pick up 94 feet.

“Just play tough,” Martin said. “I think that’s where I can find myself fitting in real fast on this team.”

Martin’s opportunity became possible once the Sixers signed Walker to a standard contract on Thursday. After Walker could not play in the Sixers’ previous four matchups because he had exhausted his 50 active NBA games allowed on a two-way deal, he acknowledged “worrying a little bit” about his future while spending time with loved ones during the All-Star break.

But while Walker was sidelined, Nurse recognized that the Sixers “really need” the 6-foot-8, 235-pounder’s physicality as a rebounder and interior defender. Walker totaled four points, three rebounds, two assists and one steal — including a second-half highlight sequence when he hit a three-pointer, then corralled a steal and lofted an alley-oop pass to Adem Bona — in 10 minutes, 16 seconds of his return game against Atlanta.

Barlow, meanwhile, remained in the starting lineup with Paul George still suspended for violating the NBA’s anti-drug policy. Nurse was pleased both players had their contracts converted this month because “they just earned it, and they deserved it.”

“Young, hungry, playing-hard guys that I think we can have in our organization,” Nurse said. “We want [players like that]. I’m glad those guys got rewarded — both of them.”

Those contract conversions — plus other recent examples, such as Justin Edwards last season and Ricky Council IV in 2024 — demonstrate that the Sixers will use two-way players who provide value. Martin appreciates such evidence of opportunity. He took the floor for an early pregame on-court session Thursday and said he is working to quickly learn staffers’ names.

Nurse is unsure when Martin could see game action, with the Sixers entering a stretch of three road matchups in four nights. Yet Martin’s addition could complete the Sixers’ post-trade deadline roster, and it allowed him to join the NBA team closest to his hometown.

“We’ll get into what my path and my thing is for the rest of the season going forward,” Martin said. “But right now, I’ll just do what I’ve done when I was in this situation before and bet on myself.”

Cameron Payne was in the middle of Sunday’s game with Serbian team KK Partizan, when his agent, Jason Glushon, shared that a rest-of-season contract with the 76ers was in the works.

“You might want to pack,” Glushon told his client.

The veteran guard was at Sixers practice by Wednesday afternoon, working with new (and old) teammates and reviewing film with assistant coach Matt Brase. Payne, who played for the Sixers for part of the 2023-24 season, adds depth to a guard group that lost Jared McCain and Eric Gordon at the trade deadline. And though Payne said another NBA comeback was not his overwhelming goal, he is pleased to rejoin a familiar team that exits the All-Star break with a 30-24 record and in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race.

“Obviously, I wanted to get back,” Payne said following Wednesday’s practice. “But all my focus was there [with Partizan]. I feel like, sometimes, when your focus is in the right place, things like this happen.

“I was really locked in there, and me playing there got the looks to come back here.”

Payne was a trade-deadline pickup in February of 2024, averaging 9.3 points and 3.1 assists in 19.4 minutes across 31 regular-season games. The 31-year-old is a high-energy guard whom All-Star teammate Tyrese Maxey has seen “change games, honestly,” such as when he provided an 11-point burst on 3-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc in the Sixers’ Game 3 playoff victory over the New York Knicks two seasons ago.

Payne then played for the Knicks last season, averaging 6.9 points and 2.8 assists in 15.1 minutes in 72 games before entering free agency. He spent the preseason with the Indiana Pacers before being released, then had a workout with the Phoenix Suns (where he played for parts of four seasons, from 2020-23) that did not result in a contract.

When Partizan circled back with an offer, Payne jumped at the opportunity.

“Man, I’m tired of sitting down,” he said to himself. “Yeah, let’s play some basketball.”

Payne called the fan environment for the Belgrade-based club “lit,” complete with arenas packed “wall-to-wall” and lit flares causing smoke to hover over the court. He also appreciated that he was trusted to run Partizan’s offense, “like they’re counting on you, for real.” He averaged 11.6 points, 3.8 assists, and 1.5 steals in 15 games.

Payne believes he can carry that same “ownership” to the Sixers’ second unit, which has sputtered throughout this season.

He will be asked to push the pace, play in the pick-and-roll, and shoot three-pointers. Perhaps more importantly, Payne is expected to give the occasional blow to Maxey, who leads the NBA in minutes per game (38.6), and VJ Edgecombe, who ranks in the league’s top 10 in that category (35.4) while already playing in more games than he did at Baylor. Sixers coach Nick Nurse said Wednesday that Payne can “eat into” those players’ stints and also log “superhuge minutes” in specific scenarios, such as back-to-backs or blowouts.

“We can almost throw him in there to take over for certain games,” Nurse said. “He’s capable of doing that.”

To get from Serbia to Philly by the time the Sixers officially reconvened from the All-Star break, Payne first took an early-morning flight Tuesday that connected through Amsterdam. He arrived at the team’s Camden facility around 3:30 p.m. for his physical. He acknowledged Wednesday that he is still adjusting to the time difference and has not slept much.

Still, Nurse said Payne looked in-rhythm during Wednesday’s practice, that “you forget how fast he is.” Payne started to learn new teammates’ tendencies, such as Trendon Watford can initiate the offense as a point forward and that he can “throw it up” to athletic center Adem Bona. With Brase, he went through “a little package” of plays that he could successfully execute should he be called upon to play in Thursday’s home matchup against the Atlanta Hawks.

And during a phone call Wednesday morning with Glushon, Payne turned reflective about his return to the Sixers.

“I don’t know how I keep finding a way to get back,” Payne said. “But I guess the NBA’s still watching. And if you still take your game seriously and do the right things, play the right way, they’re still looking.”