The Philadelphia 76ers, through the ’80s, were one of the more disappointing teams in the NBA. While they did clinch an NBA Championship in 1983 and drafted future MVP Charles Barkley in 1984, the 76ers are still waiting for a championship to come back to their city.
Despite having Barkley and most of their championship core with Julius Erving, Moses Malone, and others still on the team, Philly could never make a push to the title again. In 1989, the 76ers added Detroit Pistons ‘Bad Boy’ Rick Mahorn while the Pistons were coming off a championship. In 1990, the 76ers added Manute Bol, the tallest player to ever compete in the NBA at the time.
With Mahorn, Barkley, and Bol on the same team, the trio found good chemistry together. This old video of the three having fun at practice shows the camaraderie they had developed with each other.
“Charles Barkley and Rick Mahorn are the funniest basketball players in the world,” said Manute.
“We call him ugly all the time, he needs to have a good sense of humor if he looks like that,” responded Barkley,
As we already mentioned, the 76ers never had any championship success during the time they had with all these amazing players after 1983. Barkley, Mahorn, and Bol would all leave the team in consecutive seasons, starting with Mahorn leaving to play in Italy for a season before he returned for the New Jersey Nets. Mahorn ultimately retired in 1999 as a Sixer.
Charles left the team in 1992 for the Phoenix Suns, taking the franchise to the Finals and becoming a league MVP during his time with the team. Bol was the last one to leave, choosing Miami over Philadelphia in 1993. These are stellar players that enjoyed a great relationship as teammates but could never see it home and win an NBA Championship.
