The New York Knicks defeated the reigning champion Boston Celtics in six games in the Eastern Conference semifinals to reach their first conference final in 25 years. Normally, the Celtics’ loss in the playoffs is grounds for celebration, and there is certainly cause for celebration that the Philadelphia 76ers‘ most hated rival will not be hoisting a second straight trophy.
But the Knicks also took themselves off a list of conference incompetence that the Sixers embarrassingly still find themselves on. At this point, it seems like a conversation as old as time: the Sixers have never made the Eastern Conference finals in the Joel Embiid era.
With the Knicks now earning their spot, 19 of 30 NBA teams have competed in a conference finals since Embiid was drafted ahead of the 2014-15 season.
Of course, that sounds bad—because it is bad. But it is somehow even worse when you consider the past 11 years of conference finalists.
Starting with the obvious, is it really fair to make the timeline the entire length of Joel Embiid’s career when he missed his first two full seasons due to injury? Yes, it is. All six separate conference finalists from 2015 and 2016—Warriors, Rockets, Thunder, Cavaliers, Hawks, and Raptors—have returned to play in at least one more conference final since. (The Hawks and Raptors both made it back directly at the Sixers’ expense.)
Then you look at the dominant runs from the Warriors and Celtics and LeBron James with the Cavaliers and Lakers, and you realize just how few slots there were to fill for 19 separate teams to have reached the NBA’s Final Four. Those four teams represent 18 of the 44 conference finalists since 2015, leaving just 26 slots for the 15 others who made it.
How about all the other teams that have made it more than once? The Rockets, Nuggets, Thunder, Mavericks, Timberwolves, Hawks, Raptors, Bucks, and Pacers have all qualified for two conference finals since 2015. The Miami Heat have been in three conference finals in the post-LeBron era. That’s another 21 slots filled.
The five teams that have competed in one conference final since 2015 do not help the situation either.
San Antonio made it in 2017, the last great year of a two-decade-long run of supremacy. The Portland Trail Blazers rebounded from an embarrassing first-round sweep in 2018 to then run through Russell Westbrook, Paul George, and Nikola Jokic en route to a conference finals berth in 2019. In 2021, the Phoenix Suns went from a downtrodden franchise to an NBA finalist overnight when they acquired Chris Paul. The Clippers had not been to the conference finals in their franchise’s history before accomplishing the feat by defeating the top-seeded Utah Jazz in a series where Kawhi Leonard tore his ACL.
And of course the New York Knicks, who took down the Sixers in the playoffs last year, just dethroned the team the Sixers never could, the Celtics, to reach their first conference final since 2000, ending a streak just one year longer than where the Sixers’ currently lies.
The other 10 teams that have not made the conference finals since Joel Embiid was drafted are as poor of company as you could imagine: the Pistons, Magic, Bulls, Nets, Hornets, Wizards, Kings, Pelicans, Jazz, and Grizzlies.
If it were not for Kevin Durant‘s big toe stepping on the three-point line against the Bucks in the 2021 playoffs, the Nets would not be on this list. If Rudy Gobert did not erode his relationship with Donovan Mitchell during the pandemic, the Jazz probably would not be on this list. The Grizzlies were in the Western Conference finals just two years before Embiid was drafted and have had to bridge two different eras just to accomplish about as much as the Sixers have in the same amount of time since.
Just to add even more salt to the wound, the Sixers do not even have one impressive playoff series win in the Joel Embiid era. They have taken down Goran Dragic, D’Angelo Russell, Bradley Beal and Russell Westbrook, Pascal Siakam, and Mikal Bridges, to be reductive. Ironically, Siakam and Bridges, who have both played in the NBA Finals, find themselves in the conference finals again this year with different teams than when they made the Finals.
A running joke in NBA circles can only be so funny before it turns out to actually just be quite sad.
