From the instant in early October that some punk on the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia flashed a gun in the face of Jahlil Okafor, the 76ers and Okafor himself have been on a losing streak that would put the team’s record-breaking 27-game slog to shame.
What could have been a clarifying moment for the Sixers and their star rookie center, a terrifying episode that should have forced the franchise and Okafor to reexamine how they were handling his safety and his behavior, has instead prefaced nothing but negligence, irresponsibility, and one daft decision after another. The Sixers haven’t done nearly enough to protect Okafor, and he hasn’t done nearly enough to avoid the sorts of situations — such as the incidents in Old City last month and in Boston early Thursday morning — that would put his reputation, his playing career, even his life in peril.