The Philadelphia 76ers, also known colloquially as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games at Wells Fargo Center located in the South Philadelphia Sports Complex.

Founded in 1946 and originally known as the Syracuse Nationals, they are one of the oldest franchises in the NBA and one of only 8 out of 23 to survive the league's first decade. The team is owned and managed by Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE), with founders Josh Harris and David Blitzer acquiring the team in 2011.

The 76ers have had a prominent history, with many Hall of Fame players having played for the organization, including Dolph Schayes, Hal Greer, Wilt Chamberlain, Chet Walker, Billy Cunningham, George McGinnis, Julius Erving, Maurice Cheeks, Bobby Jones, Moses Malone, Charles Barkley, and Allen Iverson.

The 76ers have won three NBA championships. Their first came under their previous name, the Syracuse Nationals, in 1955. The second title came in 1967, a team which was led by Chamberlain. The third title came in 1983, won by a team led by Erving and Malone. The 76ers have only been back to the NBA Finals once since, in 2001, when they were led by Iverson and lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in five games. Chamberlain, Erving, Malone, Iverson, and Joel Embiid have been named the NBA's Most Valuable Player while playing for the 76ers, for a total of seven MVP awards.

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In 1946, Italian immigrant Danny Biasone established the Syracuse Nationals of the National Basketball League (NBL) in Syracuse, New York, for $5,000. While in the NBL with teams largely consisting of small Midwestern towns, the Nationals put together a 21–23 record, finishing in fourth place. In the playoffs, the Nationals were beaten by the Rochester Royals in four games. In their second season, 1947–48, the Nationals struggled, finishing in fifth place with a 24–36 record. Despite their record, they made the playoffs, and were swept by the Anderson Duffey Packers in three straight games.

Prior to the 1948–49 season, four teams left the NBL for the BAA as the foundation for a merger was laid. The Nationals "recipe for success" began by recruiting Leo Ferris. Staying in the NBL, Ferris signed Al Cervi to be player-coach and outbid the New York Knicks for the services of Dolph Schayes who made his professional debut, leading the Nationals to a winning record for the first time with a record of 40–23. In the playoffs the Nationals defeated the Hammond Calumet Buccaneers, winning the series in two straight games. In the semifinals, the Nationals lost to the Anderson Duffey Packers for the second straight season in four games. In 1949, when the NBL and the BAA merged into the NBA, the Nationals were one of seven NBL teams that were brought into the NBA.

The Nationals were an instant success in the NBA, winning the Eastern Division in the 1949–50 season, with a league-best record of 51–13. In the playoffs the Nationals continued to play solid basketball, beating the Philadelphia Warriors in two games. Moving on to the Eastern Finals, the Nationals battled the New York Knickerbockers, beating their big-city rivals in a three-game series. In the NBA Finals, the Nationals faced fellow NBL alums the Minneapolis Lakers. In Game 1 of the Finals the Nationals lost just their second home game of the season 68–66. The Nationals did not recover, as they fell behind 3–1 before falling in six games.

Despite several teams leaving the NBA for the National Professional Basketball League before the 1950–51 season, the Nationals decided to stay put. In their second NBA season, 1950–51, the Nationals played mediocre basketball all season, finishing in fourth place with a record of 32–34. In the playoffs the Nationals played their best basketball of the season as they stunned the first-place Warriors in two straight, taking Game 1 on the road in overtime 91–89. In the Eastern Finals, the Nationals were beaten by the New York Knickerbockers in a hard-fought five-game series, losing the finale by just two points.

Cervi, playing less and coaching more, emphasized a patient offense and a scrappy defense, which led the league in the 1951–52 season by yielding a stingy 79.5 points per game as the Nationals won the Eastern Division with a solid 40–26 record. In the playoffs, the Nationals knocked off the Warriors again in a three-game series. In the Eastern Finals, the Nationals fell to the Knickerbockers again, dropping the series in four games.

The Nationals finished in second place in a hard-fought 3-way battle for first place in the Eastern Division for the 1952–53 season, with a record of 47–24. In the playoffs, the Nationals faced the Boston Celtics dropping Game 1 at home 87–81. Needing a win in Boston to keep their hopes alive, the Nationals took the Celtics deep into overtime before losing in quadruple OT 111–105, in what remains the longest playoff game in NBA history.

The Nationals acquired Alex Groza, and Ralph Beard as the Indianapolis Olympians folded leaving the NBA with just 9 teams for the 1953–54 season. Once again the Nationals battled for the Division title falling two games short with a 42–30 record. In the playoffs, the Nationals won all four games of a round-robin tournament involving the three playoff teams from the East. In the Eastern Finals, the Nationals beat the Celtics in two straight games. In the NBA Finals, the Nationals lost to the Lakers in a hard-fought seven-game series where the two teams alternated wins throughout.

With the NBA struggling financially and down to just 8 teams during the 1954–55 season, Nationals owner Biasone suggested the league limit the amount of time taken for a shot thus speeding up a game that often ended with long periods of teams just holding the ball and playing keep away. Biasone and Nationals' general manager Ferris calculated a 24-second shot clock would allow at least 30 shots per quarter speeding up the game and increasing scoring. The Shot Clock was an instant success as scoring was up 14 points per game league-wide. In the first season of the shot clock, the Nationals would take first place in the East with a 43–29 record. After a first-round bye the Nationals would beat the Celtics in four games to reach the NBA Finals for the second straight season. In the finals the Nationals would get off to a fast start, led by forward Schayes, taking the first two games at home against the Fort Wayne Pistons. As the series moved to Fort Wayne the Pistons would spark back to life taking all three games to take a 3–2 series lead. Back in Syracuse for Game 6 on the Nationals kept Championship hopes alive by beating the Pistons 109–104 to force a seventh game at home. Game 7 would be as tight as the series as George King sank a free throw to give the Nationals a 92–91 lead in the final seconds. King then stole the inbound pass to clinch the NBA Championship for the Nationals.

Coming off their NBA Championship the Nationals struggled during the 1955–56 season, needing a tiebreaker over the Knickerbockers to avoid finishing in last place and make the playoffs with a 35–37 record. In the playoffs, the Nationals stunned the Celtics winning the first-round series in three games by taking the final two games. In the Eastern Finals, the Nationals played solid basketball again as they pushed the Warriors to a decisive fifth game. The Nationals' reign as defending champions ended with a 109–104 loss in Philadelphia.

The Nationals got off to a slow start as coach Cervi was fired and replaced by Paul Seymour. Under Seymour, the Nationals rebounded and finished the 1956–57 season in second place with a record of 38–34. In the playoffs, the Nationals had trouble knocking off the defending champion Warriors advancing to the Eastern Finals with two straight wins. The Nationals were swept in three games by the eventual champions, the Celtics.

Fort Wayne and Rochester had moved on to Detroit and Cincinnati for the 1957–58 season, leaving the Syracuse Nationals as the last small-town team in the big city NBA. That did not matter on the court as the Nationals held their own finishing in second place with a 41–31 record. In the playoffs, the Nationals fell in the first round as they lost a three-game series to the Philadelphia Warriors.

Despite a mediocre 35–37 record for the 1958–59 season the Nationals made the playoffs again by finishing in third place. In the playoffs, the Nationals swept the Knickerbockers in two straight to reach the Eastern Finals, where they lost to the eventual champion Celtics, alternating wins before losing by 5 points in Game 7.

Playing in a league now dominated by superstars like Bill Russell of the Celtics, Wilt Chamberlain of the Warriors, Bob Pettit of the St. Louis Hawks and Elgin Baylor of the Lakers, the Nationals held their own posting a solid 45–30 record, while finishing in third place after the 1959–60 regular season. In the playoffs, the Nationals lost a three-game series to Chamberlain and the Warriors.

With the Lakers relocating from Minneapolis to Los Angeles before the 1960–61 season, the Syracuse Nationals became the last old NBL team to still be playing in their original city in the NBA. The Nationals went on to make the playoffs again by finishing in third place with a 38–41 record. The Nationals were dangerous in the playoffs as they stunned the Warriors in three straight games. In the Eastern Finals, the Nationals lost once again to the eventual champion Celtics in five games.

Schayes missed 24 games during the 1961–62 season and failed to lead the team in scoring for the first time in 14 years, as Hal Greer led the way with 22.8 points per game. The Nationals finished in third place again with a 41–39 record. In the playoffs, the Nationals lost their first two games to the Warriors on the road. Facing elimination the Nationals won the next two games to force a fifth game in Philadelphia. In Game 5 the Warriors ended the Nationals' season with a 121–104 victory.

With an aging team, the Nationals were expected to fade; however, with the scrappy play of Johnny Kerr, the Nationals remained a strong contender, finishing in second place for the 1962–63 season, with a record of 48–32. In the playoffs the Nationals faced the Cincinnati Royals, getting off to a 2–1 series lead. Needing one win to advance to the Eastern Finals again the Nationals lost two straight, dropping the decisive fifth game at home in overtime 131–127.

The playoff overtime loss on March 26, 1963, would prove to be the last game for the Syracuse Nationals, as investors Irv Kosloff and Ike Richman purchased the team from Danny Biasone and moved the team to Philadelphia, filling the void left by the Warriors, who had moved to San Francisco. Syracuse was the last of the medium-sized cities housing an NBA team, but by then it was apparent that central New York was no longer large enough to support it. The NBA thus returned to Philadelphia one year after the Warriors had left it. A contest was held to decide on a new name for the team. The winning name, chosen by Walter Stalberg, was the "76ers". The name comes from the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia in 1776. "Sixers" was also utilized for shorter referencing, particularly in headlines. The shorter name was quickly accepted by the team for marketing purposes, and for most of the last six decades "76ers" and "Sixers" have been officially interchangeable.

For their first four years in Philadelphia, the 76ers played mostly at the Philadelphia Arena and Civic Center-Convention Hall, with an occasional game at The Palestra at the University of Pennsylvania. Schayes was named head coach, a post he held for four years (the first as player-coach).

In the 1964–65 season, the 76ers acquired the legendary Wilt Chamberlain from the Warriors; Chamberlain had been a high school legend at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia and began his career with the Warriors while they still played in Philadelphia. The 76ers would push the Celtics to seven games in the semifinals, with the 76ers trailing 110–109 in Game 7. After Hal Greer's pass was stolen by John Havlicek, the Celtics went on to beat the Los Angeles Lakers and win the NBA Championship. On December 3, 1965, in the midst of a game at the Boston Garden, co-owner Richman suffered a heart attack and died courtside.

Led by head coach Alex Hannum, the 76ers had a dream season as they started 46–4, en route to a record of 68–13, the best record in league history at the time. Chamberlain, Billy Cunningham, and Greer, along with all-stars Chet Walker, Lucious Jackson and Wali Jones led the team to the semifinals. This time the 76ers beat the Celtics in five games. In Game Five of that series, as the 76ers went to victory and the NBA Finals, Philadelphia fans chanted "Boston is dead!"—a symbol that the Celts' eight-year reign as NBA champion had ended. The Finals were almost anticlimactic, with the Sixers ousting the Warriors in six games to give them their second NBA Championship. The 1966–67 76ers were voted the best team in league history during the NBA's 35th anniversary celebration in October 1980.

In the 1967–68 season, with a new home court in the form of The Spectrum to defend their championship, once again the 76ers made it back to the NBA Playoffs and in the rematch of the previous year's semifinals, the 76ers held a 3–1 series lead over the Celtics, before the Celtics staged a dramatic comeback to beat the 76ers in seven games.

At the end of the season, the 76ers dealt Chamberlain to the Los Angeles Lakers for Archie Clark, Darrall Imhoff and Jerry Chambers. At the time, the trade appeared to make some sense from the 76ers' perspective. Chamberlain was making noises about jumping to the American Basketball Association, and general manager Jack Ramsay did not want to risk letting Chamberlain walk away for nothing. However Chamberlain's replacement at center, Lucious Jackson, suffered a severe injury in 1969 and was never the same player after that. The Chamberlain trade was followed by a freefall in the 76ers' performance, which Ramsay accelerated by subsequent divestiture of All Star forward Chet Walker to the Chicago Bulls.

While the rapidly declining 76ers continued to contend for the next three seasons, they never got past the second round. In 1971–72, only five years after winning the title, the 76ers finished 30–52 and missed postseason play for the first time in franchise history.

The bottom fell out in the 1972–73 season. Ramsay left for the expansion Buffalo Braves, but the 76ers had trouble finding a replacement; Al McGuire and Adolph Rupp turned them down. Kosloff was so desperate for a replacement that he took out an ad in The Philadelphia Inquirer. It was answered by Roy Rubin, longtime head coach at Long Island University. For all intents and purposes, the season ended when Cunningham bolted to the ABA on the same day Rubin was introduced as head coach. This left the 76ers with a roster of Greer and little else. The 76ers lost their first 15 games of the season, and a few months later set a then-record 20-game losing streak in a single season. Their record following the 20-game losing streak was 4–58, and the team at that point had just lost 34 of 35 games. The 76ers finished the season with a 9–73 record, leading the skeptical Philadelphia press to call them the "Nine and 73-ers". Rubin was fired after 51 games and a 4–47 record; as it turned out, it would be his only NBA coaching job. He was succeeded by player-coach Kevin Loughery, who went 5–26 the rest of the way. The 76ers finished an NBA-record 59 games behind the Atlantic Division champion Boston Celtics. Only six years after tallying the most wins in NBA history, the 1972–73 squad notched the fourth-fewest wins in NBA history, and still the fewest for a full 82-game season. The 73 losses, although threatened several times, remains the all-time low-water mark for any NBA franchise. The 76ers' 0.110 winning percentage was a record worst at the time, and would remain the lowest until the 2011–12 Charlotte Bobcats finished 7–59 for a .106 winning percentage in a season shortened due to a lockout. The 76ers of 1972–73 are generally considered to be the worst team ever to take the court in NBA history. In 2007, NBA historian Kyle Wright argued that the 1992–93 Dallas Mavericks and 1997–98 Denver Nuggets, both of whom won eleven games, plus the inaugural Cleveland Cavaliers, who won 15 games, were actually poorer teams due to much weaker schedules.

The next year, the 76ers would hire Gene Shue as their head coach and they slowly came back. In the 1975–76 season, the 76ers acquired George McGinnis from the Indiana Pacers of the ABA (after the Knicks tried to sign him, not knowing that the 76ers owned his rights). With him, the 76ers were back in the playoffs after a five-year absence, and even though they lost to the Buffalo Braves in three games, a doctor would come along and get the team healthy enough to stay in perennial contention. During this period, one last personnel misjudgment had effects when the team used the fifth pick overall in the 1975 draft to select Darryl Dawkins directly from high school. The immensely talented and physically imposing Dawkins seldom, if ever, lived up to his great potential in part because of a perpetual adolescence.

The 76ers finally came all the way back in 1976–77, in large part due to the ABA–NBA merger. The ABA's last champions, the New York Nets, were facing a burden of $5 million to the Knicks for entering the New York metropolitan area on top of the $3.2 million expansion fee for joining the NBA. So, when the 76ers offered to buy the contract of the Nets' franchise player, Julius Erving, for $3 million—roughly the cost of NBA membership—the Nets had little choice but to accept. A few months before that trade, Kosloff had sold the 76ers to Fitz Eugene Dixon Jr. on May 28, 1976.

Led by Erving, the 76ers began an exciting ride, beating their long-time rival from Boston in a seven-game playoff series to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. There, they defeated the Houston Rockets, led by future 76er Moses Malone, in six games to advance to the NBA Finals. In the Finals, they sprinted to a 2–0 series lead over the Bill Walton-led Portland Trail Blazers—who were coached by former 76ers' coach/general manager Jack Ramsay—only to drop the next four games in a row to give the Blazers the title.

That led to the 1977–78 motto of "We owe you one", which would ultimately backfire when they lost in the conference finals that season to the Washington Bullets, who went on to win the NBA championship. In the next four seasons, the 76ers would fall short of the NBA Championship, even after Shue handed the coaching reins to former great Billy Cunningham. In the 1980 NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers, they lost 4–2. In Game Six, rookie Magic Johnson played center for the Lakers in place of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (who was out because of a sprained ankle sustained in Game Five) and scored 42 points. In the 1981 Eastern Conference Finals, the 76ers opened a 3–1 series lead over the Celtics only to see Boston come back and win the series in seven games. The following season, the 76ers again faced the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, and again jumped to a 3–1 series lead only to see Boston forge a 3–3 series tie. The 76ers were given little chance of winning as they faced the Celtics in Game Seven at Boston Garden. This time, they played angry but inspired basketball, pulling away to a 120–106 victory and becoming the third NBA road team to win Game 7 after leading the series 3–1. In the game's closing moments, the Boston Garden fans began chanting "Beat L.A., Beat L.A.", as they realized their team would lose the playoff series to a hated opponent (Philadelphia 76ers), but nonetheless openly wished that opponent good luck in the next round against a more hated opponent (the Los Angeles Lakers). The team lost the 1982 Finals in six games against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Harold Katz bought the 76ers from Dixon in 1981. On his watch, the final piece of the championship puzzle was completed before the 1982–83 season when they acquired center Moses Malone from the Houston Rockets. Led by Hall of Famers Julius Erving, Maurice Cheeks, and All-Stars Andrew Toney and Bobby Jones, they dominated the regular season, winning 65 games in what is still the second most winning year in franchise history. Malone was named League MVP, and when reporters asked how the playoffs would run, he answered, "four, four, four"—in other words, saying that the 76ers needed to win four games in each of the three rounds. Malone's accent made his boast sound like "fo', fo', fo'."

The 76ers backed up Malone's boast. They made a mockery of the Eastern Conference playoffs, first sweeping the New York Knicks and then beating the Milwaukee Bucks in five games. The 76ers went on to win their third NBA championship (and second in Philadelphia) with a four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers, who had defeated them the season before. Malone was named the playoffs' MVP. The 76ers did not quite fulfill Malone's prediction, as their run was actually "fo', fi', fo" ("four, five, four") – a loss to the Bucks in game four of the Eastern finals being the only blemish on their playoff run. Nonetheless, their 12–1 playoff record is tied for the fewest losses in league history with the 2000–01 Lakers, who went 15–1 en route to the NBA title, coincidentally beating the 76ers in the Finals (after suffering their only defeat that postseason in Game 1), and also with the 2016–2017 Golden State Warriors, who won the title with a 16–1 playoff record. The Philadelphia-based group Pieces Of A Dream had a minor hit in 1983 with the R&B song "Fo-Fi-Fo", which title was prompted by Malone's quip. This also marked the last major-pro championship in Philadelphia until the Phillies won the 2008 World Series.

After a disappointing 1983–84 season, which ended with a five-game loss to the upstart New Jersey Nets in the first round of the playoffs, Charles Barkley arrived in Philadelphia for the 1984–85 season. For the next eight seasons, Barkley brought delight to the Philadelphia fans thanks to his humorous and sometimes controversial ways. The 76ers returned to the Eastern Conference Finals in Barkley's rookie season, but lost to the Boston Celtics in five games. As it turned out, they would never again advance as far during Barkley's tenure in Philadelphia. Following the 1984–85 season, Matt Guokas replaced Billy Cunningham as head coach. Guokas led the 76ers to a 54–28 record and the second round of the 1986 playoffs, where they were defeated by the Milwaukee Bucks in seven games.

On June 16, 1986, Katz made two of the most controversial and highly criticized personnel moves in franchise history, trading Moses Malone to Washington and the first overall pick in the 1986 NBA draft, which had been obtained from the San Diego Clippers in a 1979 trade for Joe Bryant, to the Cleveland Cavaliers. In return, the 76ers received Roy Hinson, Jeff Ruland, and Cliff Robinson, none of whom played more than three seasons with the team. Cleveland, meanwhile, turned their acquired pick into future All-Star Brad Daugherty.

On the night of the 1986–87 season opener, Julius Erving announced he would retire after the season, which was subsequently filled with tributes in each arena the 76ers visited. On the court, the team suffered through an injury-plagued campaign, but still managed to make the playoffs with a 45–37 record. Their season would end at the hands of the Bucks again, this time in a best-of-five first-round series that went the distance.

In 1987–88, with the team's record at 20–23, Guokas was fired and replaced by assistant coach Jim Lynam. Lynam finished the season 16–23, to bring Philadelphia's overall mark to 36–46. For the first time since the 1974–75 season, the 76ers failed to reach the playoffs. Philadelphia selected Charles Smith with its first pick (third overall) in the 1988 NBA draft, then traded his rights to the Los Angeles Clippers for their first pick (sixth overall), and Hersey Hawkins. In five seasons with the 76ers, Hawkins would average 19 points per game, and was the team's all-time leader in three-point field goals attempted and made when he was traded to the Charlotte Hornets for Dana Barros, Sidney Green and draft picks in 1993.

In 1988–89, Philadelphia returned to the playoffs after a one-year absence, but was swept in the first round by the New York Knicks. In 1989–90, Barkley finished second in the league's MVP voting, as the 76ers won the Atlantic Division title with a 53–29 record. After defeating Cleveland in the first round of the playoffs, Philadelphia faced Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in the second round. The 76ers fell to the Chicago Bulls in five games, and would do the same in 1991 after sweeping the Bucks in the first round. In the 1991–92 season, the 76ers went 35–47 and missed the playoffs for just the second time during Barkley's eight seasons in Philadelphia. On June 17, 1992, Barkley was traded to the Phoenix Suns for Jeff Hornacek, Tim Perry, and Andrew Lang, a deal that was met with harsh criticism.

Lynam relinquished his head coaching position to become general manager following the 1991–92 season, and hired Doug Moe to fill the vacancy. Moe's tenure lasted just 56 games, with the 76ers posting a 19–37 record. Popular former player and longtime assistant coach Fred Carter succeeded Moe as head coach in March 1993, but could only manage a 32–76 record at the helm. Following the 1993–94 season, the 76ers hired John Lucas in the dual role of head coach and general manager. The enthusiastic Lucas had been successful as a head coach for the San Antonio Spurs, and Philadelphia hoped he could breathe new life into the 76ers. It proved disastrous, as the team went 42–122 in its two seasons under Lucas. The acquisition of unproductive free agents such as Scott Williams and Charles Shackleford, players at the end of their careers such as LaSalle Thompson, Orlando Woolridge, and Scott Skiles along with stunningly unwise high draft picks such as Shawn Bradley and Sharone Wright were also factors in the team's decline. In fact, Wright would only play four seasons in the NBA while Temple product Eddie Jones—drafted 4 slots below Wright in 1994 by the L.A. Lakers—had 16 productive seasons as an NBA player.

Starting with the 1990–91 season, and ending with the 1995–96 season, the 76ers had the dubious distinction of seeing their win total decrease each year. The nadir was the 1995–96 season, when they finished with an 18–64 record, the second-worst in franchise history at the time. It was also the second-worst record in the league that year, ahead of only the expansion Vancouver Grizzlies but behind the Toronto Raptors, who were also in their inaugural season. That season would turn out to be their last in The Spectrum. Katz, unpopular among fans since the 1986 trades, sold the team to Comcast Spectacor, a consortium of Philadelphia Flyers owner Ed Snider and Comcast Corporation, at the end of the 1995–96 season. Snider had been the 76ers' landlord since gaining control of the Spectrum in 1971. Pat Croce, a former trainer for the Flyers and 76ers, took over as president.

Many 76ers fans call these years "The Dark Ages". After many years of misfortune, there was a bright spot. The team won the lottery for the top pick in the 1996 NBA draft. Questions remained, but with the first pick, the 76ers selected Allen Iverson, who was nicknamed "the Answer".

With new ownership, Iverson in place, and the 76ers moving into the CoreStates Center, things seemed to finally be heading in a positive direction. Croce fired Lucas as both coach and general manager. Johnny Davis was named head coach, while Brad Greenberg took over as general manager. Iverson was named Rookie of the Year, but Philadelphia's overall improvement was minimal, as they finished with a 22–60 record. Changes had to be made, and after the 1996–97 season, Davis and Greenberg were both fired and the unveiling of a new 76ers team logo and jerseys marked a new era. To replace Davis, Larry Brown was hired as head coach. Known for a defense-first approach and transforming unsuccessful teams into winners by "playing the right way", Brown faced perhaps his toughest coaching challenge. He often clashed with Iverson, but the 76ers improved to 31 wins in 1997–98. Early in the 1997–98 season, the 76ers traded Jerry Stackhouse, who had been the third overall pick in the 1995 NBA draft, to the Detroit Pistons. In exchange, Philadelphia received Aaron McKie and Theo Ratliff, defensive standouts who would have an impact in the team's resurgence. Another key figure in the team's rise, Eric Snow, was added in a trade with the Seattle SuperSonics in January 1998.

Prior to the 1998–99 season, the 76ers signed George Lynch and Matt Geiger, but a lockout delayed the start of the season, which was shortened to 50 games. During the season, Philadelphia acquired Tyrone Hill in a trade with Milwaukee. The team began its resurgence during this lockout-shortened season, finishing with a 28–22 record and the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, marking the first time since 1991 the team reached the postseason. In the first round, Philadelphia upset the Orlando Magic 3–1, before being swept by the Indiana Pacers. The following season, the 76ers improved to 49–33, fifth in the Eastern Conference. Again, the 76ers won their first-round series in four games, this time defeating the Charlotte Hornets. For the second straight year, they were defeated by Indiana in the second round, this time in six games. Though the team was moving in a positive direction, Iverson and Brown continued to clash, and their relationship deteriorated to the point where it seemed certain Iverson would be traded. A rumored trade to the Los Angeles Clippers fell through, but a complicated four-team deal that would've seen Iverson sent to Detroit was agreed upon, only to see it dissolve due to salary cap problems. When it became clear Iverson was staying in Philadelphia, he and Brown worked to patch things up, and the team would reap the benefits in 2000–01.

During the 2000–01 season, the 76ers got off to a hot start by winning their first ten games and were never seriously challenged in the Atlantic Division. Larry Brown coached the Eastern Conference All-Stars, and Allen Iverson was named MVP of the All-Star Game. Shortly before the All-Star break, Theo Ratliff was lost for the season with a wrist injury, one that would later prove to be devastating to his future career. Despite holding a 41–14 record and a comfortable lead atop both the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference standings at the time of the February 22 trade deadline, management felt the team needed an established center to advance deep into the playoffs. On that day, Philadelphia acquired Dikembe Mutombo from the Atlanta Hawks in a deal that sent the injured Ratliff along with Nazr Mohammed, Toni Kukoč, and Pepe Sánchez to Atlanta (Sánchez was reacquired later in the season after the Hawks waived him). The 76ers went on to finish 56–26, good enough for their first Atlantic Division title since 1989–90 and top seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs.

In the first round of the playoffs, Philadelphia faced Indiana yet again. In Game One, the 76ers wasted an 18-point lead and lost, 79–78, when Reggie Miller hit a three-pointer in the closing seconds. Philadelphia fought back and won the next three games to win the series. In the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the 76ers squared off against the Toronto Raptors and their superstar, Vince Carter. The teams alternated wins in the first four games, with Iverson scoring 54 points in Philadelphia's Game Two victory. A Game Five win with Iverson scoring 52 in a 121–88 rout, and a Game Six loss set up a decisive Game Seven, which the 76ers survived as Carter missed a long jump shot at the buzzer for an 88–87 victory that sent the 76ers to the Eastern Conference Finals against the Milwaukee Bucks. After the teams split the first two games of the series in Philadelphia, it was learned Iverson would miss Game Three due to various nagging injuries that had plagued him late in the season. Though most predicted a Milwaukee cakewalk, the 76ers kept the game close before falling, 80–74. Philadelphia seemed to gain momentum despite the loss, and they would win Games Four and Five. Milwaukee put any Sixer celebration plans on hold by building up a 33-point lead in the third quarter of Game Six, but the 76ers would make a furious fourth-quarter rally before falling 110–100. Struggling in the series up to that point, Iverson scored 26 points in the final quarter to finish with 46 on the night and appeared to have gotten a second wind. In Game Seven, the Bucks jumped out to a 34–25 second-quarter advantage before seldom-used reserve Raja Bell scored 10 points to spark a 23–4 run that gave Philadelphia the lead for good. Iverson scored 44 points and the 76ers pulled away in the second half, winning by a 108–91 score to put them in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1983. As had been the case in their three previous Finals appearances, their opponent would be the Los Angeles Lakers, who had run up an 11–0 record in the first three rounds of the playoffs and were expected by many to make quick work of a worn-down 76ers squad. Because of a seemingly meaningless loss to the lowly Chicago Bulls in the regular season finale with both the 76ers and the Lakers finishing with identical 56–26 records, though Los Angeles was awarded a higher seed based on tiebreakers, the NBA Finals marked the first time in the 2001 playoffs in which the 76ers had to start a series on the road.

In Game 1, the Lakers jumped out to an 18–5 lead, but the 76ers stormed back to take a 15-point lead in the second half. Los Angeles rallied to force a 94–94 tie at the end of regulation before scoring the first five points of the overtime period, but the 76ers closed the game on a 13–2 run for a 107–101 triumph. Iverson hit a go-ahead three-pointer with 1:19 to go in the extra period, and followed that with a jump shot after which he infamously stepped over Tyronn Lue after making the basket. Eric Snow hit a running jump shot in the waning seconds with the shot clock expiring to clinch the stunning victory. The series would come back to Philadelphia even as Los Angeles took Game Two, 98–89. In Game Three, Shaquille O'Neal fouled out late in the fourth quarter, and the 76ers pulled to within a point with less than a minute to play after trailing by 12 earlier in the second half. Robert Horry hit a clutch three-pointer in that final minute, and the Lakers prevailed, 96–91. Los Angeles wrapped up the second of what would be three consecutive NBA titles with a 100–86 win in Game Four and a 108–96 victory in Game Five.

In addition to their Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference titles, the 2000–01 76ers featured the NBA's MVP (Iverson), Coach of the Year (Brown), Defensive Player of the Year (Mutombo), and Sixth Man of the Year (Aaron McKie).

The 76ers went into the 2001–02 season with high expectations, but were able to produce only a 43–39 record, sixth in the Eastern Conference. In the first round of the playoffs, Philadelphia was defeated 3–2 by the Boston Celtics. In the 2002–03 season, the 76ers sprinted to a 15–4 start, but a 10–20 swoon left them 25–24 at the All-Star break. After the break, the 76ers caught fire, winning nine in a row at one point, and 23 of their last 33 to finish at 48–34, earning the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Iverson scored 55 points in the playoff opener against the New Orleans Hornets and the 76ers went on to win the series in six games. In the second round, the Detroit Pistons ended Philadelphia's playoff run in a frustrating six-game series that saw the 76ers lose twice in overtime, and once on a last-second shot in regulation. It would be nine years before the 76ers won another playoff series.

On Memorial Day, 2003, Brown abruptly resigned as head coach, taking over the reins in Detroit a few days later. Brown's Pistons would win the 2004 NBA Championship over the Los Angeles Lakers, in some ways avenging his loss to them in 2001. After being turned down by Jeff Van Gundy and Eddie Jordan, the 76ers hired Randy Ayers, an assistant coach under Brown, as their new head coach. Ayers lasted only 52 games and was fired with the team's record at 21–31. Chris Ford took over, but the 76ers finished the 2003–04 season at 33–49, missing the playoffs for the first time in six years. Iverson, who was at odds with Ford throughout the interim coach's tenure, played only 48 games in a stormy, injury-plagued season.

For the 2004–05 season, Philadelphia native Jim O'Brien was named head coach. Iverson was moved back to point guard and flourished, having arguably his finest season. He also impressed many with his willingness to get other players involved in the offense. During this season, Philadelphia acquired Chris Webber in a trade with the Sacramento Kings, with the hopes that the team had at long last found a consistent second scoring option to complement Iverson. Andre Iguodala, Philadelphia's first-round pick in the 2004 NBA draft, was named to the All-Rookie First Team, and the 76ers returned to the postseason with a 43–39 record. In the first round, they were defeated in five games by the defending NBA Champion Pistons, coached by Larry Brown.

Though in the 2004–05 season the 76ers exceeded many on-court expectations, there was a great deal of behind-the-scenes tension between O'Brien, his players, and the front office. Shortly after the season ended, O'Brien was fired and replaced by the popular Maurice Cheeks, who played for the team from 1978 to 1989, and was the starting point guard for the 1983 NBA Champions. The coaching change did not help the team's fortunes for the 2005–06 season. A 2–10 stretch in March doomed them to missing the playoffs for the second time in three years with a 38–44 record.

With the opening of the 2006–07 season, the 76ers started out hot, going 3–0 for the first time since making it to the Finals five years previously. They stumbled through the first half of the season and did not recover, finishing 35–47, good for third in the Atlantic Division, and ninth in the Eastern Conference (tied with Indiana).

On December 5, 2006, disappointed with the direction the team was headed, Allen Iverson gave the 76ers management an ultimatum: find players who will help support me or trade me. This was confirmed via an in-game interview with team owner, Ed Snider.

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On December 19, 2006, Allen Iverson, along with Ivan McFarlin, were sent to the Denver Nuggets in exchange for guard Andre Miller, forward Joe Smith, and two first-round draft picks. Then, on January 11, the 76ers' general manager Billy King announced that the 76ers and aging forward Chris Webber had agreed to a buyout of the remainder of his contract. The 76ers paid Webber $36 million over the next 1½ seasons, which is $7 million less than he would have been paid to play. After the buyout, the 76ers waived Webber, making him a free agent. Webber signed with the Detroit Pistons shortly thereafter. The moves allowed the 76ers to make Iguodala the unquestioned leader of the team, and evaluate whether they saw him as a franchise player. They finished the year 35–47.