Four former Philadelphia 76ers big men are named to the top 20 power forwards list in NBA history.
Some pretty terrific players have been a part of the history of the Philadelphia 76ers. Legends such as Allen Iverson and Julius Erving passed through the City of Brotherly Love and made an impact on the franchise and the league.
As the NBA celebrates its 75th season, lists honoring the best players in league history have been released. One of the most recent lists released is focused on the big men.
The great people at HoopsHype put together a list of the top 20 power forwards in NBA history, and four former Sixers are on the list. Their ranking on the list will be next to their name:
Here is an all-time Philadelphia 76ers roster consisting of the franchise’s all-time greats.
The Philadelphia 76ers get set to begin the 2021-22 season on Wednesday, kicking off the 75th season in NBA history. The league has been honoring the all-time greats in the history of the game as they have been putting out lists of the top 75 to ever play.
Here at Sixers Wire, we are not going to put out a list of the top 75 Sixers ever, but we will put together our all-time Sixers roster consisting of all of the legendary players who have thrown on a Sixers uniform.
To put together such a team, you have to go back and sift through a lot of history. The Sixers are one of the more historic franchises in the NBA so this gives a lot of players to choose from.
Here are our picks for the all-time Sixers roster in their franchise history starting with the five starters and the 10 bench players for a total of 15 on the roster:
Last year, city commissioners agreed to shrink the size of the municipal Bobby Jones Golf Club and open the park for broader public use than golf.
SARASOTA, Florida – A group of boating enthusiasts believes Florida isn’t doing enough to collect, preserve and display Florida’s rich maritime history.
Dating back 7,000 years to the early Native Americans, it’s become a major industry and continues to be a key economic driver. But there are few places in the state to explore that history.
They hope to soon change that.
But the Maritime Museum isn’t proposed along the shimmering waters of the Gulf of Mexico or Sarasota Bay, but five miles inland at Bobby Jones Golf Club.
The board of the Gulf Coast Maritime Museum, a newly formed nonprofit, is slated to ask Sarasota city commissioners on Monday to OK a $1 lease agreement for up to two acres of the city-owned Bobby Jones Golf Course – a course already earmarked for a $15 million renovation project.
Architectural plans drawn up by Seibert Architects call for three 10,000-square-foot exhibition buildings for more than 50 boats. Two 4,000-square-foot buildings would be needed for a gift shop, ticket office and movie theater. There will also be room for workshops, administrative offices and parking.
The Board of the Gulf Coast Maritime Museum, a newly formed nonprofit, plans to ask Sarasota City Commissioners on Monday to OK a $1 lease agreement for up to two acres of the city-owned Bobby Jones Golf Course – a course already earmarked for a $15 million renovation project.
“The museum will put Sarasota squarely in the ranks of major maritime museum locations in the country,” John Pether, the Gulf Coast Maritime Museum’s secretary, told commissioners last week.
“The Gulf Coast Maritime Museum has no competition, and will attract local visitors and tourists, as well as boating enthusiasts from all over Florida and out of state,” Pether said.
Pether said he anticipates between 50,000 and 80,000 annual visitors. The number, he said, was based on the visitor count to the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature in Bradenton. A maritime museum could bring in about $2.1 million into the local economy, Pether estimates.
Pether’s proposal doesn’t mention the Florida Maritime Museum nestled within the fishing village of Cortez about 19 miles north of Bobby Jones in Manatee County. That museum, run by Manatee County, also provides a look at Florida’s rich maritime history.
The Bobby Jones Golf Course is situated between Fruitville Road and 17th Street, just east of Beneva Road, in Sarasota.
The proposed location may meet with some resistance. Last year, city commissioners agreed to shrink the size of the municipal Bobby Jones Golf Club and open the park for broader public use than golf. The property covers 293 acres and the city has selected 47.4 acres of parkland to be used for preservation and recreation.
The design for the new course and park space is still in the works and it might be too early to make certain changes, said Commissioner Liz Alpert.
“I don’t want to do piecemeal bits until we see the overall plan,” Alpert said. “If there’s another place in the city that we can find, that would probably be more optimal.”
Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch pointed to the lengthy process the city underwent to finally settle on a plan to modernize and renovate Bobby Jones.
“Bobby Jones has been through a lot,” said Ahearn-Koch.
“It’s a great idea but I’m not completely convinced that Bobby Jones is the place for it,” Ahearn-Koch said.
In its proposal, the Gulf Coast Maritime Museum identifies the space earmarked for golf. However, it does not say where in the park it would like to build its two-acre museum.
Sarasota is an attractive city for such a museum, Pether said. It’s close to Interstate 75 and is central to the Gulf Coast of Florida. Sarasota also has a rich maritime history.
In 1885 the first Scottish settlers arrived by boat in Sarasota Bay. Bill and Marie Selby loved to fish. John Ringling had a large yacht. The Sarasota Yacht Club had a racing fleet as early as the 1920s, and an active fishing and charter fleet operated from the old Sarasota City Pier until it was demolished in the 1950s.
Major boat builders such as Yellowfin Yachts, Andros Boat Works, Panga Marine, Chris Craft and Ocean 1 Yachts all call the area home.
Sarasota Bay is regularly used for recreational sailing, as well as state, national, and international sailing regattas, as well as offshore powerboat racing. From Venice north to Bradenton, there are six active Yacht Clubs.
The commodores of those clubs unanimously support a Sarasota location for the Gulf Coast Maritime Museum, according to Pether’s petition.
If the City Commission agrees to the proposal, the nonprofit would begin fundraising $5.5 million for construction and endowment funds. Pether estimates it may take up to 2 ½ years to raise the money, which he expects would come from a combination of private donations and Sarasota County bed taxes.
In 2014, Rory McIlroy polished off a tense back-nine duel at Valhalla Golf Club to win the PGA Championship. He hasn’t won a major since.
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SAN FRANCISCO – In the dying light at Valhalla Golf Club on the 10th day of August of 2014, Rory McIlroy polished off a tense back-nine duel with Phil Mickelson, Henrik Stenson and Rickie Fowler with a two-putt birdie on the finishing hole to win the PGA Championship.
As he took hold of the massive silver Wanamaker Trophy for a second time, the former Boy Wonder became the fourth player in 100 years to win four majors at 25 or younger. The others? Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
He had won his second consecutive major and four of the most recent 15 played, the others being the 2011 U.S. Open, the 2012 PGA and the 2014 Open Championship. He was the world’s No. 1 player and well on his way toward inclusion into the pantheon of the game’s greatest players.
He hasn’t won a major since.
Although he’s finished in the top-10 on 10 occasions, he’s 0-for-19 in the game’s four biggest events since leaving Valhalla. The stretch hasn’t scarred him psychologically, his stout perspective bolstered by nine PGA Tour titles since his last major triumph, three European Tour wins, two FedEx Cup championships and two rousing victories in the Ryder Cup.
“It doesn’t keep me up at night and I don’t think about it every day, but when I play these major championships, it’s something that I’m obviously reminded of,” McIlroy said Wednesday before a practice round at TPC Harding Park, home to the 102nd PGA Championship. “Look, I would have liked to have won a couple more majors in that time frame, and I feel like I’ve had a couple of decent chances to do so and I just haven’t got the job done.
“But the good thing is we have at least three opportunities this year, and then hopefully if things normalize going forward, four opportunities (next year). I’ve got plenty of opportunities coming my way. I think everyone that stands up here wishes they would have won more and would have played better and all that stuff and I’ve given myself chances, I just haven’t been able to capitalize on them.”
He could very well be in the perfect spot to win his fifth major, as McIlroy won the 2015 World Golf Championships-Cadillac Match Play at TPC Harding Park.
And the moist conditions here, where the thick marine layer, overcast skies and occasional rain have produced a soft course that has no chance of becoming firm and fast, could play right into his hands. Each of his four majors have come when the grounds were on the spongy side. His power also is a distinct advantage on a course that tests all aspects of your game.
Rory McIlroy (left) and Jason Day smile on the eighth tee box during a practice round for the 2020 PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park. Photo by Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
But the world No. 3 is more concerned about turning his present form around that adding to his major championship trophy case.
Before COVID-19 halted play on the PGA Tour, McIlroy had posted top-5 finishes in seven consecutive tournaments, including a win in the WGC-HSBC Champions. And the superlative span started two months after he won The Tour Championship and his second FedEx Cup title.
But since the Tour returned in June, McIlroy hasn’t posted a top-10 in five starts.
“Before the world sort of shut down, I was playing some really good golf, consistent. And then having that three-month break, coming back, everything sort of changed,” he said. “It’s just the sharpness and being efficient with my scoring hasn’t been there. Turning the 73s that I’ve shot into 70s. That’s the sort of stuff that I think when you’re sharp and you’re playing a bit and you’re sort of in your groove you’re able to do that a little better, and that’s the stuff that I haven’t been able to do since coming back out here.
“That’s really been the only thing. I feel like my game is really close. Even the mediocre scores that I’ve shot I’ve come off the golf course thinking, well, I actually didn’t play too badly, I just didn’t get a lot out of the round. If I can just keep playing like that and keep being a little bit more efficient with my scoring, I’ll be right where I need to be.”
In June 1944, Bobby Jones landed on the beach in Normandy the day after the D-Day invasion led by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.
When the U.S. entered World War II, millions of Americans did what they could to help the war effort.
Some enlisted in the military, while some volunteered on the homefront.
Plenty of professional golfers did what they could to help. Masters Tournament champions Gene Sarazen and Byron Nelson were among the big-name golfers who donated their time for exhibition matches to raise money.
Others, most notably Lloyd Mangrum, saw combat time. Mangrum, who shot a course-record 64 to open the 1940 Masters, received two Purple Hearts for his bravery.
Future Masters winners also enlisted:
Ben Hogan served as a lieutenant in the Army Air Corps
Sam Snead was in the Navy until he received a medical discharge for a back injury
Bobby Jones wasn’t idle, either. Too young to serve in World War I, he played exhibitions across the country to help raise money for the American Red Cross.
Bobby Jones was commissioned as captain in Army Air Forces. He was honorably discharged in 1944.
When the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred Dec. 7, 1941, Jones was just shy of his 40th birthday. He was presumed to be too old to serve.
Jones and Clifford Roberts, who co-founded Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament, decided to hold the 1942 Masters as scheduled. Nelson held off Hogan in an epic 18-hole playoff for his second win at Augusta National.
But right after that tournament, Jones and Roberts shut down the club. Jones asked for, and received, a commission in the Army Air Forces.
“He didn’t want one of those show appointments,” said Randy Gue, a curator at Emory University’s Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library, which has a collection devoted to Jones. “He didn’t want that. If he was going to do it, he was going to do it right.”
Jones was commissioned as a captain in June 1942 and was assigned to the First Fighter Command at Mitchel Field in Long Island, New York.
He was promoted to major in March 1943 and later that year was assigned as a military intelligence officer for the Ninth Air Force. He went to England in late 1943.
In June 1944, Jones landed on the beach in Normandy the day after the D-Day invasion led by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the future president and Augusta National member.
“That was not a safe and secure time,” Gue said. “It was much better than the day before, but he was not in some cushy rear job.”
Jones was discharged in August 1944 with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He arrived back in Atlanta later that month to little fanfare.
“His personality was he didn’t want to make a big deal,” Gue said. “Everyone was involved with the war effort.”
During the war, Augusta National raised cattle and turkey on club grounds. The turkey operation was successful, but Roberts estimated that the club lost $5,000 on the cattle business.
“They also ate a large number of valuable azalea and camellia plants, together with the bark from the trunks of some young trees,” Roberts wrote in his book The Story of the Augusta National Golf Club.
Course restoration began in late 1944, and a year later formal plans to resume the tournament were announced.
“The nation’s second ranking golfing classic – the Augusta Masters tournament – will be resumed next spring after a four year period of inactivity caused by the war,” The Augusta Chronicle reported in its Nov. 18, 1945, edition.
The club also announced plans to improve the clubhouse by adding extra bedrooms and a Trophy Room.
On April 4, 1946, the Masters resumed play with a small field of 51 golfers. Herman Keiser, known as the “Missouri Mortician,” had served in the Navy aboard the USS Cincinnati. He held or was tied for the lead after each round. Keiser slipped to 74 in the final round, but he and Hogan each three-putted the final hole, and Keiser held on for a one-shot victory.
Veterans Mangrum (U.S. Open), Snead (British Open) and Hogan (PGA) all won majors in 1946 as professional golf resumed full time.
We offer up our list of the top 10 putts in Tiger Woods’ career, starting with Nos. 10, 9 and 8. Go to Golfweek.com for more on this list.
One of the most iconic clubs in golf’s history is a 35.25-inch, chrome-finished Scotty Cameron Newport 2 putter with a single dot on the topline and two distinct red dots, one on the front, the other on the back.
“Yep, it’s been pretty good to me,” Tiger Woods said of the putter he calls “Scotty.” “Seriously, it’s been a special club.”
Bobby Jones had Calamity Jane, Judge Smails his Billy Baroo and Woods his Scotty, which he first wrapped his paws around in 1999. Since then, the club has been in his bag for 66 of his record-tying 82 PGA Tour titles and 14 of his 15 majors and led to nearly $95 million in earnings.
“It’s hard to describe how it’s always felt in my hands; how confident I’ve always felt with it,” he said. “It’s been a huge part of my life on the golf course.”
In tandem, the two have delivered some of the game’s most memorable putts. It’s a long list, indeed, and presents a challenge as difficult as facing a 6-foot, downhill putt that breaks two feet at Augusta National – what are the best putts Woods has made in his career?
While Woods hasn’t used the Scotty since February due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, he’s had plenty of time to recall his best work with the shortest club in his bag. We’ve had the time, too, and offer up our list of the Top 10 best putts in Woods’ career. Without doubt, the list is open to dispute, as is the ranking. But that is what the 19th hole is for. Anyway, here’s our list. Be sure to come back all week as we continue the countdown.
But today, nobody will be driving down Magnolia Lane. No green jackets will be seen. Pimento cheese sandwiches won’t be eaten (unless you’re really down on your quarantine food supply).
Your friends here at Golfweek are just as sad as you are without the Masters being played this week, but that won’t stop us from celebrating what should be the first major of the season. So in order to help get you in the right state of mind without any new golf at Augusta National Golf Club, we went through every Masters tournament and picked out one notable piece of information.
We’ll start with the inaugural tournament:
1934
The first Masters was officially known as the “Augusta National Invitation Tournament” for the first five years. Host and co-founder Bobby Jones finished T-13. The tournament purse was $5,000, with the winner Horton Smith taking home $1,500.
1935
The nines at Augusta switched to their present order, with the finishing hole at “Holly.” In the final round, Gene Sarazen holed a double eagle (235 yards, 4 wood) to tie Craig Wood and force a 36-hole playoff. You might know that second shot at “Firethorn,” the par-5 15th hole, as the “shot heard ’round the world.” Sarazen went on to win the Monday playoff.
1936
For the second year in a row, the Masters (still officially Augusta National Invitation Tournament) was decided with 36 holes on Monday, but not because of a playoff. Heavy rains postponed the first round until Friday. Sunday’s play was also postponed, leaving the third and fourth rounds to be played on Monday. Horton Smith won his second Masters.
Bobby Jones on April 2, 1936 in preparation for his annual Masters golf tournament. (AP Photo)
1937
Byron Nelson opened with a 6-under 66, but a Saturday 75 dropped him to a tie for third. On the back nine on Sunday, Nelson gained six strokes on leader Ralph Guldahl over two holes and won. Nelson played Nos. 12 and 13 birdie-eagle, and in 1958, the bridge near the 13th tee was dedicated as The Nelson Bridge.
1938
The great Ben Hogan makes his Masters debut, finishing T-25. For the second and final time, tournament host Bobby Jones finished in the top 20.
1939
Guldahl, who finished runner-up the previous two years, claimed his only Masters title with a tournament record 9-under par, besting runner-up Sam Snead by a stroke. Guldahl’s -9 record stood until Hogan’s 14-under performance in 1953.
The final fan votes have been counted and the 1983 Philadelphia 76ers are voted as the best in franchise history.
The final fan votes have been tallied and the last championship team in history came out on top as the best team ever assembled in the history of the Philadelphia 76ers.
We set up a March Madness type of bracket with the top 12 teams in franchise history and had you, the fans, vote on each matchup to find a winner in each one. To see the final results for the previous matchups:
The 1982-83 Sixers team defeated the 2000-01 Sixers by a wide margin of 95.45% to 4.55% of the vote. On paper heading into this matchup, it appeared that the 1983 team had the edge and that the 2001 Sixers probably should not have received more votes than the 1967 title-winning Sixers.
The 1983 team was led by one of the most electrifying players in the game in Julius “Dr. J” Erving and he was flanked by a dominant big man in Moses Malone who went on to win Finals MVP of the Finals where the Sixers swept the Los Angeles Lakers. Malone averaged a gaudy 25.8 points and 18.0 rebounds in the series against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
The Sixers were more than just Erving and Malone too. Andrew Toney was a huge part of that team and he averaged 22 points in the Finals providing terrific play on both ends of the floor. The team also received big contributions from Maurice Cheeks and Bobby Jones as well. They were a complete team.
The 2001 team was special and they were led by the electric Allen Iverson and the inside play of Dikembe Mutombo, but they were not better than the ’83 champions. [lawrence-related id=28994,28985,28977]
We now count down the top five power forwards in the history of the Philadelphia 76ers.
The power forward position has been marked by a mixture of power and grace. An elite power forward uses a mixture of both of those attributes to be able to score in the post and also be able to step out and hit a jumper when needed.
For the Philadelphia 76ers, one of the greatest players in the history of the game played the position for them. They have seen their fair share of elite power forwards come through and don their colors and we’re going to rank the top five at the position in their history.
Don’t forget to check out the rankings for the previous positions:
