Fans can buy $2 tickets and opposing announcers are laughing at the team. That’s the current reality for the Sixers.
Things have gotten ugly for the Sixers as it’s starting to feel like the Process at the arena — and on the broadcasts.
Going to a Sixers game has rarely been cheaper. On Monday, Process-era pricing appeared to be in effect with tickets available on the secondary market for just $2, not including fees, which would bring you a bit closer to $4 per person.
Of course, then you had to watch the Sixers.
And if you were one of the Sixers fans who bought $2 tickets to Monday night’s game against the Bulls, you certainly got what you paid for.
At one point, the Sixers were down by as many as 50 points against the Bulls in the 142-110 loss, which is not something that should happen to a team that began the season with championship aspirations, healthy Joel Embiid or not. With the loss, the Sixers fell to 20-37 — they haven’t been 17 games below .500 since the end of the 2016-17 season, when they finished 26 games below .500.
“We’ve shown no signs of a team that will compete,” Paul George said after the game. “And we just don’t have the habits [that] a playoff-contending team would have. To be honest, right now, [playoffs are] a little far-fetched.”
» READ MORE: Nick Nurse delivers clear message after Sixers’ latest lackluster effort: ‘We got to be professional’
The game went so poorly that even the Bulls broadcast was openly laughing at the hapless play of this team — and coach Nick Nurse’s exasperated look on the sideline.
“Nick Nurse is like, ‘Why am I still standing here watching this thing?’” Bulls play-by-play man Adam Amin said. “I’ve enjoyed my time with Nick, he’s one of the good guys, he’s a good coach, but he is just checked out, Rocky IV-style, at this point … Poor Nick Nurse, man.”
Even ESPN host and former Inquirer columnist Stephen A. Smith went against one of his signature catchphrases to defend Nurse after the way the season has gone.
“I’m getting concerned about Nick Nurse,” Smith said Tuesday on First Take. “You have heard me say, ‘Stay off the weed!’ I’m encouraging him to get on some, based on everything that I’ve heard weed does. … Let him drink, let him smoke some weed, let him do whatever, because this coach right here — you can’t be more depressed than this man is.”
The team visits the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, and then returns home to face the Warriors on Saturday. With Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler in town, tickets for that game are a little more expensive, with the get-in price starting at $77 on the secondary market.
Don’t worry, more $2 tickets are available for next Monday’s game against the Trail Blazers, if you’re into that kind of thing. But buyer beware, Process-level pricing might mean Process-level play.