The Philadelphia 76ers are, putting it nicely, not a very good basketball team. They have the worst record in the NBA, at 9-63. If they lose all 10 of their remaining games this season(which really isn’t all that unlikely), their 9-73 record would match the worst record of all time(lockout years excluded). The last 9-73 team was also the 76ers, but back in 1973.
So, anyways. The Sixers are bad. They’re losing a lot, which can’t be easy on the players. Nobody likes to lose, and constantly doing so has to be really difficult to swallow for all of these players, all of whom presumably won a lot in high school and college.
Nerlens Noel is one of the better players on the 76ers. He’s a terrific defender, and a talented young player. The 21-year-old big man has averaged 11.1 points, 8 rebounds, 1.7 steals, and 1.5 blocks per game in 62 appearances for the Sixers this season while shooting 52.4% from the field. Despite his admirable play this season, Noel, probably like every other player on the team, doesn’t like losing. From Keith Pompey of Philly.com:
“Yeah, I’m human. So it’s tough,” Noel said Wednesday before the team’s 104-103 loss to the Denver Nuggets at the Pepsi Center. “I can’t lie about that.
“Sometimes it’s tougher than other times. When you feel that it starts affecting you personally, you do your best to try to make it turn [in the right direction]. But it’s been a long year, especially this one, and dealing with a lot more [losses.]”
…
He expected the team to be further along this season, not take a major step backward.
“I think this year I had to deal with a lot more than I have the past couple,” he said. “It has been the toughest year for me this year.
“I think I’ve done the best possible [job] just staying uplifted and continuing to play my game no matter what circumstances, whether playing out of position or doing things that I wasn’t comfortable with.”
To Noel’s credit, he has not publicly complained about sliding to power forward at the start of the season to accommodate Okafor. Nor did he come close to having a frustration-laced tirade as the losses mounted.
Noel has certainly been a trooper throughout this dispiriting season. Hopefully he can maintain some form of optimism over the next 10 games. It’s almost over!
