Bleacher Report recently underwent an interesting exercise, examining the Mount Rushmore (i.e. the four most iconic faces) for every team during the course of the 21st century. While some franchises had an embarrassment of riches and had to leave some outstanding players off the list, the article really drove home how bleak Philadelphia 76ers basketball has often been this century, something also covered in our Gordie Jones’ recent ranking of the last 25 Sixers teams.
The first name was Allen Iverson, an obvious inclusion. Not only did The Answer lead the Sixers to their only NBA Finals appearance since Will Smith dropped Willennium, but he stamped one of the greatest cultural footprints of any player in league history. We don’t need to go on.
Next we have Joel Embiid. While the current outlook for the big man’s future is awfully pessimistic and we could potentially be looking at a John Wall Memorial Worst Contract in the League situation, Embiid needs to be on here. The man won an MVP award, and they don’t just hand those out like Major League Baseball letting Jacob Misiorowski in the All-Star Game. Embiid went on about a half-decade run combining historical efficiency on the offensive end with defensive domination. His body may be letting him down, but no sane person could let him down by excluding him from this group.
Now things get slightly murkier with the next name: Andre Iguodala. As someone who will be discussed for the Hall of Fame when he is eligible in 2027, he should be open and shut here. However, he finally received the full respect he deserved after leaving Philadelphia. With the Sixers, he was miscast as an alpha scorer, supposed to take the reins from Iverson after his departure. Philadelphia fans grew increasingly bitter that wasn’t who Iguodala was as a player. It wasn’t until he was able to serve as an elite defensive swiss-army knife, glue guy with Golden State (and Team USA) that Andre reached his ultimate potential. Still, Iguodala peaked as a Sixer with his 2011-12 All-Star campaign culminating with his playoff moment in Chicago during that fun postseason run. For better or worse, he’s the face of an entire era of Sixers basketball.
Finally, we arrive at who prompted this follow-up discussion: Thaddeus Young. Here’s what Bleacher Report wrote on Thad:
“Picking a fourth face is hard, and not the fun kind of hard. You can make a case for Ben Simmons, Lou Williams, Tyrese Maxey, Jrue Holiday, Robert Covington, maybe even James Harden and more. Thaddeus Young’s longevity wins out. He’s third among Sixers in total games played and steals and is fourth in scoring and rebounds over this span.”
Let me say this first. I loved Thaddeus Young. The Night Shift was super fun. I always respected his hustle on a night-in, night-out basis for years. Back when I used to podcast, I went on record numerous times saying Young was my favorite Sixer for many years. That being said, Thad can’t be on a Mount Rushmore purely because he played seven seasons here. He never made an All-Star team and only played 21.3 minutes per game off the bench the only time the Sixers made it out of the first round during his tenure. Mount Rushmore can’t be for memorializing the “pretty good”.
So let’s examine the other candidates. James Harden wasn’t here long enough. Ditto for Jrue Holiday, who was still on the way up when he was shipped out to kickstart The Process. Lou Williams falls into the same bucket as Thad of “pretty good for a longer period of time”. Ben Simmons probably had the highest individual peaks of anyone from this group, but Sixers fans would take dynamite to the monument if his face was thrown up there.
To me, it has to be Tyrese Maxey. Maxey has played five seasons in Philadelphia already, spending a couple as the alpha whenever Joel Embiid is sidelined (sadly, this is often). He made an All-Star team and averaged over 20 points per game during three separate postseason runs, including an iconic 46 points and logo three in a Game 5 win over the New York Knicks that Sixers fans will remember forever. Even if you don’t want to project moving forward at all as part of this exercise, Maxey already has the resume. All due respect to Thad, but instead of honoring some cumulative stats for a bunch of .500 teams, give me the rising star with the jersey every kid in Philadelphia wants to be wearing.