PHILADELPHIA, PA — It has been 43 years since Philadelphia has seen an NBA title.
As far as droughts go, it's not in the realm of a curse just yet. Plenty of other cities and franchises have it worse. It's only the 31st worse in North American professional sports. One need only look to this year's World Series, where the Milwaukee Brewers have not won in 57 years.
The basketball gods, however, have poured curse after curse on the Sixers, from absurd front office theatrics, to high draft picks that bust in inexplicably creative ways (Nerlens Noel, Ben Simmons, and Markelle Fultz are all their own distinct storylines), to the quirks of physics and air currents of the Scotiabank Arena when Kawhi Leonhard hit The Shot, to Joel Embiid's snakebitten knee.
Tuesday night the Sixers will open up a season where they're throwing such an absurd glut of talent out onto the hardwood, it should cancel out all the x factors and slings and arrows of fate inevitably arrayed against them.
Here's what you need to know ahead of Tuesday night's season opener.
How to watch
The Sixers will travel to Madison Square Garden to battle the defending champion New York Knicks. The game will began at 7 p.m., shortly following the Knicks ceremony to raise a banner up to the hallowed rafters commemorating last year's title.
The game will be aired on NBC and streamed on Peacock.
New superteam debut
LeBron James and Jaylen Brown will make their Sixers regular season debut Tuesday night, lining up for the first time ever aside the Sixers core of Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and VJ Edgecombe.
But it's not just the starting lineup that has a new look. More than half of their active roster was replaced, with only Dominick Barlow, Adem Bona, Justin Edwards, and Jabari Walker returning off the bench from last year.
Other new players include Anfernee Simons, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Dean Wade, Ariel Hukporti, Caleb Love, Rayan Rupert, and Labaron Philon Jr.
Tickets
The Garden has been famous for its staggering ticket costs during the Knicks recent run of success, but combining the season opener after a championship run with LeBron James joining their archrivals has sent it into another stratosphere.
The cheapest available ticket on Stubhub for Tuesday night is about $2,100. Average seats range from $4,000 to $6,000. Some boxes and courtside are up to $10,000, while the highest is $10,992.
Season forecast
All five Sixers starters placed among ESPN's top 100 players ahead of the 2026-27 season.
Related: How Sixers Super 5 Rank On ESPN's 'Top 100' List
ESPN also ranked the Sixers as the 4th most likely team to win the NBA title, trailing only the Oklahoma City Thunder and last year's conference champions, the San Antonio Spurs and, of course, the New York Knicks.
The Knicks also landed their five starters in the top 100.
The Sixers are 4.5 point underdogs Tuesday night, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.
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