It’s never fun seeing so many Knicks fans in Philadelphia, but however bad it gets on Wednesday night, the Sixers will have earned it all.
The Knicks visited Philadelphia for the first time this season back on Nov. 12. It was Joel Embiid’s season debut. Both teams were under .500 at the time of the game. Granted, New York entered at 4-5 while the Sixers were 2-7, but the slow starts could be more understood in mid-November. New York was working Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns into its lineup. Embiid was debuting in 2024-25 for Philly, Paul George was still getting used to his new team and the Sixers were without Tyrese Maxey who missed a couple weeks in November with a hamstring injury.
It’s important to think about how much time has passed since New York’s first trip down the Jersey Turnpike and across the bridge. It might only be just two months, but for Sixers fans, it’s been a long and painful two months. New York won that game in November and the Sixers fell to 2-8. If I told you after that game that in two months, the Sixers would be further away from .500 than they were after the final buzzer sounded, I highly doubt you would have believed me. But here we are. The Sixers are 15-23 and will hit the official halfway point of their 2024-25 campaign on Sunday night in Milwaukee.
They’re singing a rather different tune in the Big Apple. The win in the middle of November got New York to .500, and the Knicks have only been below .500 one time since then. At 26-15, New York is within striking distance of the defending champion Celtics for the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed. The Knicks are just three games south of Boston in the standings. With a good second half, New York might be able to move past the Celtics which would give the Knicks home court advantage in a potential second round playoff series between the two Atlantic division foes.
We’ve seen the Sixers in the exact position the Knicks are in countless times now and the Sixers have gone on to win 50-55 games, only to lose in the second round. None of this is meant to imply that the Knicks are suddenly a franchise worth emulating. After all, their drought without appearing in the Eastern Conference Finals is somehow longer than that of the Sixers. But the contrasting directions the two franchises have gone in since the middle of November should serve as a reminder for what many already knew. There are going to be a lot of Knicks fans at Wells Fargo Center yet again on Wednesday night.
If you can even muster up the energy to get mad about this now, you have more prideful bones in your body than I do. Perhaps it’s a good thing that this game, New York’s final one in Philadelphia in the regular season, falls during the week of an Eagles playoff game. If this game was after the Eagles season ended, I’m sure the number of Knicks fans at Wells Fargo Center would be a topic local sports radio shows had no choice but to address.
The reality is that the Sixers have made their own bed here and now they must sleep in it. This season has been nothing short of a disaster so why should anyone care if the building gets taken over by Knicks fans on Wednesday night? Truthfully, there was already probably some atrophy that Sixers fans were feeling as last season progressed that led to the Knicks fans coming in the playoff series. The writing was on the wall for another early playoff exit with the Sixers ending up in the play-in tournament and now the team might not even meet that low bar.
However far the Knicks go in the playoffs, it’s fair to assume they’re going to have the attention of most New York sports fans for the remainder of the season. They’ve probably already had most of the attention in the market given how bad both football teams were in New York yet again this season. Once the Eagles season ends, many Philadelphia sports fans are going to just start counting down the days until pitchers and catchers report to Clearwater for another Phillies season. So, get ready for more blue and orange at Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday night. It will serve as yet another reminder of just how bleak the 2024-25 season has gotten for the Philadelphia 76ers.