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The Philadelphia 76ers had just finished up a 2011-12 season that brought some hope for the team. As an 8 seed, they upset the Chicago Bulls in Round 1- albeit an injured Bulls team -and they had then pushed the Boston Celtics to Game 7 of the conference semifinals.
Those performances led the front office to believe that they were on the verge of contendning. So, they pulled the trigger on a bold move late in the summer by acquiring All-Star big man Andrew Bynum from the Los Angeles Lakers in a major 4-team deal.
In the 2012 NBA Draft, the Sixers held the 15th pick and they selected versatile wing player Moe Harkless out of St. John’s. He was then sent to the Orlando Magic in the deal that brought Bynum to Philadelphia and in the process, the Sixers also sent out Andre Iguodala to the Denver Nuggets as well as Nikola Vucevic to Orlando. The idea was that Bynum and Jrue Holiday could lead the Sixers to the next level.
Instead, Bynum did not play a single game for the franchise as he suffered an injury in a bowling alley that kept him out for the entirety of the season and the team went from promising to back in the lottery and it then triggered a massive rebuild. Meanwhile, Iguodala has since gone on to win a Finals MVP in his career and Vucevic has gone on to become an All-Star for the Magic.
After the season, he signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers only to play 24 games before being traded to the Chicago Bulls, waived, and then playing two games for the Indiana Pacers. That ended his basketball career after a very promising start to it with the Lakers.