"The Process" ..... of elimination.
I so loathe that phrase and what the 6ers organization did to get where they are, I'm very glad they got ousted. I'm further hoping for a curse on their franchise in that they shall never get past LBJ if he remains in the East or the Celtics. They'll basically be the new version of the Toronto Raptors.
I was no fan of The Process myself. I thought it would breed a losing culture so foul as to render winning an impossibility. And I did not think that Ben Simmons could survive in the modern NBA without a jumper. Nor was I convinced that Joel Embiid could remain on the court. But in the end, talent wins out in the NBA, and it's hard to argue with the results: 52 wins and a trip to the conference semi's in Simmons' and Embiid's first full season together (with Embiid only available for 63 of those games, no less). That's where they're
starting from, now that those two guys are healthy. There's nowhere to go but up, one must assume.
And the most striking part of The Process is that Philly even f***ed up at a number of stages along the way!! Drafting Nerlens Noel (via trade), Jahlil Okafor, and Markelle Fultz turned out to be
huge missteps. But that franchise is
still well-positioned for the future because of Embiid and Simmons. The Process netted them two legitimate superstars, and now they're poised to be a playoff contender for the next half-dozen seasons or more.
And if I'm the Sixers, I'm largely unconcerned with Lebron James. He's playing at an amazingly high level for a 33-year-old with 15 years' worth of a superstar's wear and tear on his body. The way in which he's able to carry a subpar team on his back has become the stuff of legend. He can probably even sustain this for another few seasons, but he absolutely won't be playing this way as Embiid and Simmons enter their primes.
As for the Celtics, they're going to be another damn good team that the Sixers will have to deal with. But as good as they'll be with Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward back in the lineup next season, they don't have an in-his-prime Lebron James to stand in the way of a team like the Sixers year in and year out. And the other transcendent superstars are out west. Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, etc. The Celtics and Sixers will probably be trading playoff victories across the next decade, like the Celtics-Pistons rivalries of the mid-80's.
Now, all of that said, everything the Sixers have built completely falls apart if Embiid's injury history portends a future where he's never playing more than 50-60 games per season. If he's constantly out of the lineup, then The Process will never achieve the championship that it was meant to deliver. So I suppose any curse should be directed at the big fella's health.