While we all know the mental health of every Philadelphia sports fan for at least the next 6-8 months is reliant on the Sixers having a good 2026-27 season, let’s not turn that into a negative. The Sixers are about to open their season at Madison Square Garden against the team that eliminated them from the postseason last spring. The New York Knicks will raise their championship banner on Tuesday night and then it’s all business in a rivalry that might be the juiciest in the NBA during the upcoming
season.
The emotions of Sixers fans have changed quite a bit from the last time Philly and New York squared off. It was a very bleak Mother’s Day as the Knicks clobbered the Sixers in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference Semifinals series. The goodwill that the Sixers had built up in Philadelphia after rallying from a 3-1 deficit against the Celtics in the first round was quickly gone and the early outlook for the offseason wasn’t particularly optimistic. It felt like the franchise was stuck.
We all know what’s happened since. Mike Gansey has given the fanbase a shot in the arm. We won’t rehash the offseason, because that’s also a thing of the past now. The 2026-27 season has arrived. For the first time in a while, instead of waiting for something bad to happen, or even entering the season with a strong sense of apathy, Sixers fans are excited about their team. For some, the players will have to prove they were worth the preseason hype on the court, and that’s fair.
But the fact that we’ve reached this point at all, to where the consensus opinion around the Sixers is one of overwhelming excitement, should be a welcomed change. We’re not asking ourselves how many games Joel Embiid is going to miss. We’re not asking ourselves if the rotation is deep enough to withstand problems in the postseason that could come with facing a team with a strong bench like the Knicks. We’re not asking ourselves about possible exit strategies during the season off bad contracts if certain players are to perform well enough to become tradeable.
These are all things that Sixers fans have wondered about when new seasons started in recent years. The start of a season was more about how to best weather the inevitable problems that were going to arise instead of simply enjoying the fact that a season was about to start. The start of any season for any sports team at any level is supposed to symbolize hope. Everyone’s starting from scratch and regardless of what the expert pickers are saying about the season, the games will still be played, and the results will be determined by the players between the lines.
In recent seasons, Sixers fans understandably have gotten away from those early season feelings of excitement. Fans have become cynical and bracing themselves for pain. Perhaps the 2026-27 will be a new source of disappointment for Sixers fans. But as we prepare to start another Sixers season, there’s certainly more optimism and enthusiasm about the team than there has been in a long time.
Enjoy it, Sixers fans, you’ve suffered plenty. You’re allowed to smile for at least a little bit.
