With the NBA in an indefinite hiatus due to COVID-19, we continue our day-by-day look back at the history of the Philadelphia 76ers. We continue down our path into Sixers history every day as we look to fill the void left by the absence of basketball.
Thursday’s edition focuses on the man they called “The Answer” as the Sixers hosted a young Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers for a regular-season game in the middle of a lockout-shortened 50-game season. The Sixers needed a win and they turned to their leader to get it done.
March 19, 1999
Allen Iverson and the Sixers were playing some solid basketball, but it just was not enough and when the Lakers came into the First Union Center, they needed a win badly. The Lakers were led by the deadly duo of Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal and it was a tall task, but no task is tall to a guy like Iverson.
The 6-foot guard from Georgetown was terrific as he scored 41 points on 17-for-36 shooting along with 10 assists and five rebounds in a 105-90 win over Los Angeles. He got to the line six times, making four of them, and he knocked down three shots from deep in the win as he relentlessly attacked Los Angeles over and over again.
He did receive some help from his teammates in this one as Eric Snow, George Lynch, Theo Ratliff, and Tyrone Hill scored in double-figures for Philadelphia. They needed all of it to knock off a powerful Lakers team.
Bryant and O’Neal led the visitors with 23 points each while Glen Rice added 17, but it was not enough. This was the game for Bryant, as he said in his Players Tribune piece, that drove him into an obsession of how to beat Iverson.
Bryant said:
On March 19, 1999, Iverson put 41 points and 10 assists on me in Philadelphia.
I needed to work harder.
Working harder wasn’t enough.
I had to study this man maniacally.
I obsessively read every article and book I could find about AI. I obsessively watched every game he had played, going back to the IUPU All-American Game. I obsessively studied his every success, and his every struggle. I obsessively searched for any weakness I could find.
I searched the world for musings to add to my AI Musecage.
The Sixers would go into the 1999 playoffs as a 6 seed and upset the Orlando Magic in Round 1. Iverson was terrific averaging 28.3 points, 6.0 assists, and 4.0 steals in the series to lead Philadelphia to a 3-1 series win. However, they ran into a much tougher Indiana Pacers team in Round 2 and they were swept out of the playoffs 4-0 as Philadelphia could not stop a balanced Pacers attack.
As for Bryant and the Lakers, his obsessions paid off when the two teams met in the 2001 NBA Finals and Bryant’s Lakers beat Iverson’s Sixers 4-1. Iverson was great in that series, but of course, nobody could really contain a great Lakers team that year. [lawrence-related id=27783,27778,27728]