The 76ers return to the NBA postseason, never the most exclusive of clubs, Saturday night for the first time since May 26, 2012. At the moment, the franchise looks no worse for the wear or the weary miles since the team’s last playoff appearance, but, man, it really has been a long, strange trip getting back to extra basketball in this city.
In that span of 2,149 days between postseason games, a lot of water has gone under the bridge and Sixers fans were compelled to watch a good deal of roster flotsam drift along with it. With the exception of nearly everyone, who could forget the magic eras of Alexey Shved, Henry Simms, Casper Ware, Jarvis Varnado, Sonny Weems and JaKarr Sampson?