Philly Front Office

Back in 1984, Charles Barkley was drafted to a veteran-laden Sixers team with nothing but a bright future ahead of them. This isn’t some alternate past or wishful thinking, it was a fact. Hell, it’s not like they had the opportunity to draft Sir Charles because they were bad! Nope. The Sixers were coming off a playoff birth in 1984 and a championship the year before that. This sage NBA Franchise had traded World B. Free back in 1978 for a future pick in the 1984 Draft. Yup, they drafted Barkley because the Clippers were bad. They also had future picks to spare. The Sixers were sitting pretty.

THE Calendar

…until they weren’t. Years of bad drafting¹ and stupidity squandered the incredible nest egg the Sixers had built up. They turned one of the best young players in the NBA and several extra draft picks, including the #1 pick in 1986, into pure mediocrity. After the Worst Day in Sixers History, Barkley would play 6 more seasons in Philadelphia with his best teammate (by a lot) being Hersey Hawkins. During that time, he averaged 25.5 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists, 1.6 steals, and 1 block per game but the team had an average record of 43-39.

The 1991-92 season was especially rough for Barkley as the team finished under .500 and missed the playoffs. He was getting increasingly frustrated on the court, his stats were down, and he dealt with the fallout from accidentally spitting on an 8-year-old girl at the end of the previous season (he was aiming for a fan who had been yelling racial slurs at him). After being selected to the 1992 Olympic Team, it was clear that he was a top talent with no help and needed to get out of purgatory. He told the team he wanted out.

Since the Sixers certainly weren’t going to do anything to improve the team around him, the options were to either trade him or lose him in free agency for nothing the following year. They decided to trade him to the Lakers. Wait, what? Barkley himself has claimed that his agent told him that he was going to LA, but the Sixers backed out of the potential trade before it was finalized. No details are available. Instead, on June 17th, 1992, just a few days after the Bulls won their 2nd championship and a few days before the Olympic Qualifying Tournament (Tournament of the Americas) was to begin, Barkley was traded to the Phoenix Suns to join Kevin Johnson and Dan Majerle. For their patronage, the Sixers received Jeff Hornacek, Tim Perry, and Andrew Lang (three names seared into my brain forever) but no draft picks.

June 16, 1986: The Worst Day in Sixers History

I’m sure this was a fair and balanced trade, right? Let’s see how everyone did! Jeff Hornacek had averaged 20 points per game in his last Suns season and even made the All-Star team. He had similar numbers with the Sixers but only lasted a year and a half before being traded to Utah for 45 games of Jeff Malone and the 20th pick in the 1994 draft which Sixers promptly lit on fire. Tim Perry managed to at least last 4 seasons in Philadelphia, though he didn’t really manage to do anything. This was still better than Andrew Lang who was released after one season. What a disaster.

Meanwhile, in the desert, Charles Barkley was named NBA MVP and led the Suns to the NBA Finals where he ran into Michael Jordan. They didn’t win, but the series gave me one of my favorite Charles Barkley stories. After losing Game 1, before going to the arena for Game 2, Barkley saw his daughter crying. He asked her what was wrong and she said she knew her dad was going to lose. He looked her in the eye and told her that he was the best player in the world and that he was going to show it to her that night. He didn’t disappoint either with 42 points and 13 rebounds. The problem was that MJ also had 42 and the Bulls won by 3. He came home and told his little girl, “Ok, maybe I’m the 2nd best player in the world.”

Barkley lasted 4 years in Phoenix and finished with MVP votes in each one but never again matched that first incredible season. As for the Sixers, at least the bottoming out that came post Barkley allowed the team to win the draft lottery in 1996 and draft Allen Iverson. Another star that the team had no idea how to build around.

Stats and Trade Info: Basketball Reference

Photo: Nathaniel S Butler – NBAE/Getty Images

1. I feel like a detective investigating a murder and realizing I’m on the tail of a serial killer. Did you know the Sixers traded away the rights to Shawn Kemp in 1989 for Tim McCormick and Danny Vranes? Who the hell are those guys??? ↩︎