Moses Malone
June 15, 1986: For fans of the Philadelphia 76ers, this is a day which lives in infamy.
The Sixers had made the Playoffs in each of the last 10 seasons. In 7 of them, they had reached the NBA Eastern Conference Finals. In 4 of them, they had reached the NBA Finals. And in 1983, they had won the NBA Championship.
In 1986, they lost in the First Round. By this point, they were an aging team. Julius Erving was 36 years old, and was soon to announce that the next season would be his last. Bob McAdoo and Bobby Jones were both 34, and the season that had ended just a week before would prove to be the last in the NBA for each of them.
Still, there was reason to hope that their run of success could continue. Moses Malone was 31. Maurice Cheeks was 29. Andrew Toney was 28. There was young talent on the roster, including 23-year-old Charles Barkley. And they had obtained the Number 1 pick in the NBA Draft in a trade with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Except that, 2 days before the Draft, 76ers owner Harold Katz traded that top pick, to the Cleveland Cavaliers, for Roy Hinson. The Cavs ended up using the pick on Brad Daugherty. To make matters worse, on the same day, Katz traded Malone and Terry Catledge to the Washington Bullets for Jeff Ruland and Clifford Robinson.
There was nothing wrong with wanting healthy versions of Roy Hinson, Jeff Ruland and Clifford Robinson. But Ruland only played 5 games for the Sixers before getting hurt, and retired, although he made a comeback 5 years later. And Hinson and Robinson did little in Philadelphia.
In contrast, Malone was still an All-Star as late as 1989, and still playing as late as 1995; while Daugherty made 5 All-Star Teams, and, arguably, should be in the Basketball Hall of Fame along with Malone.
The 76ers have never been the same, making only 1 NBA Finals, in 2001 with Allen Iverson. Otherwise, with Barkley, Iverson, Joel Embiid and James Harden, and under 3 different ownership regimes, the Philadelphia 76ers have been one of the most underachieving teams in North American sports.
From the NBA Finals of 1984 to that of 2021, the count of NBA Championships is as follows: Los Angeles Lakers 9, Chicago Bulls 6, San Antonio Spurs 5, Detroit Pistons 3, Boston Celtics 3, Miami Heat 3, Golden State Warriors 3, Houston Rockets 2, Dallas Mavericks 1, Cleveland Cavaliers 1, Toronto Raptors 1, Milwaukee Bucks 1. The other 18 teams, including the Philadelphia 76ers, none. And of those 18 teams, 6 didn't even exist in 1983.
From 1983, when the Philadelphia 76ers won the NBA Championship, until 2008, when the Phillies won their next World Series, no Philadelphia professional sports team won a World Championship. Could this be the Curse of Harold Katz? No, it's usually called the Curse of Billy Penn: The suggestion was that the construction of One Liberty Place in 1987, making it taller than the statue of William Penn atop City Hall, caused Penn's spirit to put a curse on the city's teams.
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June 15, 1986 was a Sunday. The NBA Season had ended a week earlier, when the Boston Celtics beat the Houston Rockets for the title. The NHL season had ended on May 24, when the Montreal Canadiens beat the Calgary Flames for the Stanley Cup. And football was out of season. These Major League Baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 4-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Rickey Henderson and Dan Pasqua hit home runs, but Don Mattingly went 0-for-4. Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken each went 1-for-3, with Murray's hit being a 2-run homer, and Ripken also adding an RBI.
* The New York Mets swept a doubleheader from the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-1 and 8-5 at Shea Stadium.
* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Robin Yount and Ben Oglivie hit home runs for the Brew Crew.
* The Montreal Expos beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-0 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Andy McGaffigan pitched shutout ball for 6 2/3rd innings, and 2 relievers finished a 4-hit shutout. Mike Schmidt went 1-for-2 with a walk.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Atlanta Braves, 9-7 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Reds player-manager Pete Rose did not put himself into the game.
* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-6 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
* The Chicago Cubs beat their arch-rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Steve Lake singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning.
* The San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 7-2 at the Astrodome in Houston.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 6-0 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Rick Honeycutt pitched shutout ball for 6 innings, and 2 relievers finished a 7-hit shutout. Tony Gwynn got 1 of those hits.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the California Angels, 6-5 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). George Brett went 1-for-4 with a walk. Reggie Jackson drew a bases-loaded walk as a pinch-hitter.
* The Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers, 9-2 at the Oakland Coliseum.
* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Chicago White Sox, 10-5 at the Kingdome in Seattle.
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