Nearly six years to the day that he hit one of the most famous shots of a storied NBA career, Paul George remembered every detail. But George, who sunk a four-point play over Jimmy Butler to win a game for the Oklahoma City Thunder in Philadelphia in January of 2019, was less eager to discuss the stellar play and more eager to focus on the atmosphere throughout a 48-minute thriller.
"The atmosphere was crazy," George said. "The impact, the magnitude, the fans cheering… Those moments — that moment — forever lives in my head of what Philadelphia basketball is like."
Over the last three months, PhillyVoice spoke with six current members of the Sixers about significant moments or milestones in their NBA careers which occurred against their future team. For some, these events were easy to recall: game-winners, high-profile regular season matchups, playoff memories, even an NBA debut. For others, these interviews ended up informing players about statistical achievements they had not even known about.
For George, it was impossible to forget that game-winning four-point play. The Thunder and Sixers put on an instant classic on a weekend afternoon, with a national television audience watching as George and Russell Westbrook teamed up to face Butler, Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.
George scored 31 points that day, capped off with a signature moment which became one of the defining plays in the best season of his NBA career. George crushed his career-highs in points, rebounds, steals and three-pointers made per game in 2018-19, finishing third in MVP voting and earning a First Team All-NBA nod.
This game specifically was such a significant draw because of the sheer amount of star power on the floor. It was George's star which shined brighter than the rest, though.
"Just big-time plays after big-time plays," George said. "I think [Westbrook] fouled out that game, so they relied on me to finish it."
That he did. After Butler nabbed a steal and scored in the final seconds, Oklahoma City called timeout trailing by two points. George came off a screen and instantly fired away, cashing a three as Butler was whistled for a foul. It became one of the most famous shots of George's career. But he took another chance to speak about the atmosphere in the arena which he now calls home.
"It felt like it was standing room for the majority of that game," George said. "It was a fun game."
LOS ANGELES — Perhaps the most heartwarming story of the Sixers' season has been the continued rise of Guerschon Yabusele, whose brilliance for Team France in last summer's Olympics earned him the second chance at NBA action he had been craving for a half-decade. Yabusele, a first-round pick of the Boston Celtics in 2016, flamed out after two unproductive seasons. He had to go overseas and reinvent himself, and the 29-year-old did just that. Yabusele earned his way back to the most competitive league in the world and has since made it abundantly clear that he is here to stay.
But Yabusele's journey in the NBA actually started in Philadelphia. He made his NBA debut early in 2017-18 season at the Wells Fargo Center. Yabusele was forced into Boston's rotation earlier than expected due to a slew of injuries, and suddenly he was playing in front of a sold out arena for the Sixers' home opener.
Yabusele's first NBA assignment — as a rookie power forward, mind you — was to anchor a small-ball lineup as a center and battle with Embiid. Most forgot about Yabusele's brief cameo in an October game — he only logged three minutes and change that night — but Yabusele will never forget logging his first minutes and scoring his first basket as an NBA player.
In fact, before a question about that play can even be asked, Yabusele began to recall that first bucket with a smile.
"It was a three," Yabusele said with pride. "Top of the key."
Yabusele, who at the time of the interview was only seven games into his NBA return, said the full-circle nature of it all hit him over the summer when he put pen to paper and joined the Sixers.
"This journey has been a long journey, but it has been amazing," Yabusele said.
Later in his rookie season, Yabusele witnessed one of the most bizarre moments in Sixers playoff history. During Game 3 of the second-round playoff series between the Sixers and Celtics, the Sixers found themselves trailing by two points at home, with only one chance to tie the game or send it to overtime. Sixers shooting guard Marco Belinelli broke free and tied the game with a two-point jumper near the corner.
The only problem, as the story famously goes: whoever was in charge of dropping confetti for a Sixers win thought Belinelli's shot had been a game-winning three. Confetti fell for many minutes, delaying the start of the overtime period before the undermanned Celtics won. From glory to confusion to embarrassment, all in one fell swoop:
When asked about his perspective on the absurdity of that moment, Yabusele's facial expression told the whole story. His verbal expression was generous to whichever person was responsible for one of the most comical moments in franchise history.
"It was a malfunction or something," Yabusele explained.
LOS ANGELES — Hours after Yabusele discussed a moment he will never forget, teammate KJ Martin learned of something that he had no idea about. Martin has played at least two games against every active NBA franchise, but his highest per-game averages in points, rebounds and assists all come against the same team: the Sixers.
"Oh really? I didn't know that," Martin said.
Arguably the best game of Martin's rookie campaign with the Houston Rockets came near the end of the season. "Did we play in Houston?" he asked when reminded of that game. The Rockets indeed played host the Sixers that day, and the memory started to come back to Martin as he heard his stats.
Martin collected 23 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and two blocks on that night, logging over 44 minutes. The playing time is what gets a real reaction out of him.
"Oh sh*t, oh sh*t," Martin said as more details crept into his mind. "I remember bits and pieces of it. I didn't know my numbers were like that. That's crazy."
Philadelphia crowds have a unique sound to them when things go poorly. And when the Sixers are on the wrong side of a game-winner, there is a distinct hush which echoes throughout the building. Early in the 2017-18 season, Eric Gordon knocked down a shot that was particularly devastating for a red-hot Sixers crowd.
The Sixers led for nearly the entire game before Gordon caught a pass from James Harden and, with his Rockets trailing by two points, made a game-winning corner triple as the buzzer sounded. That ominous, familiar hush occupied the arena.
"I remember we were down the whole game, and that was the final shot from three to get us over the hump," Gordon said. "We had a good team, and that game was a wild one."
The next year, Gordon played in a game that was perhaps more memorable for Sixers fans — and once again, it requires a recollection of one of the more hilarious nights in recent franchise history. Veteran wing Corey Brewer, just recently signed to a 10-day contract by the team, was asked to start in place of Butler and defend Harden, his former teammate at the absolute peak of his generational powers.
Brewer took the assignment as literally as possible. He did all he could to pester Harden all night — from face-guarding Harden while the reigning MVP was seated on the ground to mimicking a wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man as he drew comical offensive foul calls.
"Every time we came here, it was always a good game," Gordon said. "But it's good to be on the other side, too."
CHICAGO — Reggie Jackson begins scanning an old box score. Did the 14-year NBA veteran know that his very first triple double in the league came in Philadelphia?
"Oh, wow," Jackson said last month. "Not at all."
But on March 18, 2015, Jackson posted 11 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists when Detroit Pistons faced a rudderless Sixers team in Philadelphia. Jackson needed a last-second dunk on the offensive glass to secure the triple-double, which legendary Sixers play-by-play announcer Marc Zumoff caught it in real time:
Reggie Jackson secures the first triple-double of his NBA career in Philadelphia as a member of the Detroit Pistons. pic.twitter.com/1UdrIH515N
— Adam Aaronson's clips (@SixersAdamClips) January 22, 2025
The Sixers beat the Pistons that night, just their 16th win of a long season. Jackson, who nearly a full decade later still made sure to say that the Pistons losing was "the only thing that [mattered]," played in Philadelphia as an opponent over a dozen times before joining the Sixers. Some of those games spanned the team's multiple years near the bottom of the NBA standings, but he has been around for long enough to experience animated Philadelphia crowds.
"Nuts," Jackson said when asked what his perception was of crowds at Sixers games. "Very passionate, very into the game. Very interesting crowd… They make it a tougher place to play."
Perhaps no person affiliated with the Sixers has more significant and relevant experience against the team than its current head coach. Nick Nurse led the Toronto Raptors into battle against the Sixers on two separate occasions in the playoffs, winning an epic seven-game series as a rookie head coach en route to an NBA Finals victory before falling in a six-game series a few years later.
Nurse faced a much different team in 2022 than he did in 2019, but each of those Sixers squads was anchored by a common denominator: Embiid. From the perspective of someone who spent many days obsessed with limiting Embiid's dominance years apart, what changes did Nurse observe from one series to the next?
"I think just so much more variety in his game," Nurse said. "He's such a talented player that he could go down on the block and he can score so easily. We would be like, 'We can't let him score that easy,' so he'd move to the nail and he'd score so easy and we would be like, 'We can't let him score that easy!' I think he started becoming better at pick-and-pop, pick-and-roll, park, switch, passing out, getting to the free throw line."
Nurse coming up with a defensive strategy to stymie Embiid back in 2019 became one of the defining moments of his NBA head coaching tenure. Even in later years, Nurse's Raptors teams always found ways to give Embiid fits. But Nurse offered an interesting perspective on the impact of this battles:
"In a small way, I'd like to hope we made him a little better by throwing everything in the kitchen sink at him," Nurse said. "Hopefully in a small way it made him better, especially now that we're here."
The Raptors teams led by Nurse were never easy to play against, but the second time they faced the Sixers in the playoffs, they had their hands full with a 22-year-old second-year guard named Tyrese Maxey. In Game 1 of that series — the first playoff start of his NBA career — Maxey gashed Nurse's Raptors for 38 points:
Maxey averaged 21.3 points, 4.8 assists and 4.7 rebounds per game across that series while surpassing the 50/40/90 threshold.
"We always had a lot of problems with him," Nurse said. "Our Toronto teams really took a lot of pride in being able to game-plan and make things pretty miserable for certain guys. We could never seem to really get him there, just the sheer speed, we couldn't catch up with him enough to really game-plan against him."
Nurse was already very familiar with Maxey from their regular season matchups, but said that Maxey's performance in that series did alter his perception of how large the young guard's star could grow.
"Those were moments where you were like, 'Holy moly, this guy could be something special,'" Nurse said.
Speaking of special, Nurse used the same word to describe the atmosphere in Philadelphia.
"I think you've always got to be thankful when you're in a special atmosphere," Nurse said. "I think we had it in Toronto, we certainly have it here in Philly. Because there is. When you go out on the road and play some of these games, there isn't. There isn't in a half-dozen [arenas]."
As someone who has coached across the world, Nurse is particularly appreciative of rowdy environments, regardless of whether he is leading the home or visiting team.
"I'm always super thankful when there's energy in the building," Nurse said. "I certainly relish it, and we ought to relish it. We've got it here at home."
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