The Philadelphia 76ers lost to the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday, 119-103. The loss brings the team’s record this season to 0-8, which, combined with the team’s 10-game losing streak to end the previous season, means they have now lost 18 straight games dating to March 27. The Sixers have not won a basketball game in 226 days. Their last win came the week before Furious 7 was released in theaters. These are the facts.
When taken together, these facts raise an important, fair question: Will… will the Sixers ever win another basketball game? There’s only one way to settle this. A debate-style point-counterpoint.
POINT: Of course the Sixers will win a basketball game at some point.
It is totally unreasonable to assume that any professional sports franchise will go winless forever. Look at the Kansas City Royals. They were a sadsack, small-market laughingstock for decades, and now they are World Champions. Rebuilding just takes time, and the process (The Process) hurts a little sometimes.
The other thing is that the Sixers have been bitten by the injury bug a bit this season, with guards Tony Wroten and Kendall Marshall missing the first few weeks while rehabbing, forward Robert Covington dealing with a nagging sprained knee, and Nerlens Noel sitting out a game with sore wrists. The team hasn’t been close to full strength yet, and once you fold all that into the quickly developing post presence they have in Jahlil Okafor, they could have a squad that’s at least, like, competitive. They might not win 40 games, but they’ll surely win one.
COUNTERPOINT: The Sixers will never win again
They are bad.
POINT: Okay, fine. But…
Bad teams win games all the time. The Sacramento Kings are a piping-hot NorCal mess and they’ve already won two games. It will happen. Just give them time. I mean, heck, this isn’t even their longest losing streak of the past couple years. Just last year, in early 2014, they lost a record-tying 26 straight games. We really shouldn’t even be panicking until they get to 22 or 23. It’s fine. It’s fine.
COUNTERPOINT: The Sixers will never win again.
They are bad.
POINT: Look…
Okay. Okay. Okayokayokay. Technically, according to the prognosticators who prognosticate these things, the Philadelphia 76ers are not favored to win another basketball game until they play the Nets at home on Feb. 6. And yes, Feb. 6 is three months away, and losing every game between now and then would bring their then 11-month winless streak to an even 60 games, but still. Favored! The odds are in their favor! Even the mathemeticians think the Sixers will win again!
COUNTERPOINT: The Sixers will never win again.
They are bad.
POINT: But the 2016 Draft!
Fine. Let’s play doomsday here. Let’s say the Sixers go 0-82 this year. Just a total disaster. Even then — EVEN THEN — there’s hope on the horizon in the form of the 2016 Draft. Provided the Lakers can pull it together a little and don’t catch a lucky ping-pong ball, the Sixers will have Los Angeles’ Top-3 protected first-round pick in additional to less-protected first-rounders from the Heat and Thunder. Plus their own! Four first-round picks! And they don’t even have to use them on untested rookies. They can package one or more of them if they want, possibly with a player, possibly with a future pick, to bring in some veterans. The Celtics were a middling mess of high-ceiling lottery picks being held together by Paul Pierce a few years ago, then with two trades they landed Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen in the same offseason. Boom, championship. Anything is possible. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!
COUNTERPOINT: Billions of years will pass. The oceans will rise and fall. There will be disasters, both natural and man-made. The planet will become uninhabitable, leading to mass extinctions. Even the cockroaches will die. Eventually, as it follows the natural progression of any star, the sun will expand and swallow the planet whole, turning it into a great cosmic nothing. The Sixers still will not have won a game.
They are bad.
POINT: Well, dang.
You okay, bud?
COUNTERPOINT: Sorry.
It’s been a rough couple seasons.
POINT: I know.
You think the Vine of Betsy Ross doing the Nae Nae will help?
COUNTERPOINT: Maybe?
You got it handy?
POINT: Boom.
COUNTERPOINT: That did help.
Okay, fine. The Sixers will probably win a game before the sun swallows the Earth. I’ll give you that.