PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Forum in Inglewood, California is about 2,700 miles away from Nicetown in Philadelphia. But no amount of distance could have prevented a young Uriah Young from falling in love with what he saw on the screen on May 31, 1983.
The seconds were winding down. One bench was jumping in jubilation. The other was about to get swept on their home court. Maurice Cheeks was dribbling up the floor with a big smile on his face.
The 6-foot-1 point guard dunked the ball -- an exclamation point on a long-awaited, heavily promised NBA championship.
The Philadelphia 76ers were the champions of the world, and Young, sitting on the floor of his parents’ bedroom in Nicetown, was hooked.
“As soon as he dunked that ball, and [the Sixers] started celebrating, I just started jumping around,” Young said, “and I was so thrilled because I felt like I was a part of something.”
Fast forward 40 years, and Young, who lives in Bucks County and teaches sixth grade in South Jersey, is just as enamored with the team and makes the Sixers his avocation, podcasting and writing about them.
But now – he, like millions of others, are still waiting for that next title.
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Philadelphia is in his blood
Young’s Sixers fandom included watching a championship at a very young age, and running into one of his favorites at a Walmart in the middle of the night.
But take a moment and think about the timeframe of Young’s Sixers fandom.
Since that memorable night in May 1983, the Sixers have been to only one NBA Finals and two Eastern Conference Finals. They never accomplished much when Charles Barkley was one of the best players in the sport. The mid-90s – the final years at The Spectrum – were incredibly forgetful. The Allen Iverson era was incredibly memorable, but never resulted in much success aside from one season. And then it was middle-of-the-road eight-seed-type basketball which entered “The Process” years, followed by frustrating results so far with Joel Embiid, another generational star.
Young’s passion, though, has never wavered.
“The reason why I love the Sixers is because I love the city of Philadelphia,” Young said. “I appreciate the historic aspect of what it means to our country … Philadelphia is in my blood.”
Young said he loves the history dating all the way back to late, great players Wilt Chamberlain, Hal Greer and coach Dolph Schayes.
As far as Young’s favorite player Sixer ever, he went back and forth between Iverson and Embiid – saying the latter was starting to sway him because Embiid is so unique.
“I’ve never seen anything like Embiid, man,” he said. “Ever.”
That doesn’t diminish his admiration for Iverson, who he ran into when attending Hampton University near where Iverson grew up in Virginia.
“When A.I. got drafted in ‘96, I was a junior and he used to come down on campus and drive his maroon Rolls Royce. And he's driving around campus. I used to bump into him at Walmart at two in the morning. And you know, Hooters, he was all over Hampton. That was his hometown,” said Young.
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But, the question is — did he ever say anything to “The Answer” when he saw him at that Walmart?
He didn’t, because Iverson had a big crew with him, but there was something that stood out.
“So I’m in line at Walmart [at] two in the morning and I turn and look – it’s Allen Iverson standing behind me, and with the biggest bag of Cheetos you could ever imagine.”
Being a part of the Sixers community
Young is not only a fan, but someone who shares his love and knowledge of the Sixers through multiple platforms as a writer and podcast producer. Young recently joined the Philly Sports Network as a contributing writer and he is a producer for The Sixers Sense podcast, which he sometimes fills in as host.
“I love the community,” said Young, who joined the podcast in 2020. “It just gave me a platform. It gave me a chance to connect with other fans that are as passionate about the Sixers as me.”
Christopher Kline, one of the site experts of The Sixers Sense, said Young reached out to them out of the blue to join. Kline realized Young could help from a technical standpoint of producing the show, as well as provide a perspective that the younger hosts of the podcast could not.
“He’s kind of the old head of the group,” said Kline.
“He’s able to talk about things and put things into historical perspective that we are not, and that was something that he has done many times on the podcast. We’ll be talking about Joel, or we’ll be talking about Tyrese [Maxey], and he’s able to bring up a personal anecdote about Iverson and watching him in person or something along those lines. And not a lot of us who write at the site … we never got to see Iverson in person, or we never got to see Barkley play on TV. So, that is kind of a special attribute that he brings to the site and to the podcast.”
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Is this the year?
Young coached youth recreational basketball for years in Ewing, New Jersey. He called it a rewarding experience because his former players reach out to him and thank him for what he taught them on the court and classroom.
And during that time, he coached a team that was coincidentally named the Sixers. And one season, Young’s team won the championship.
In other words — Young has experienced a “Sixers championship” since the last time the real 76ers were on top of professional basketball.
The question is: When will the actual Sixers hold up their end of the bargain?
As for this season, Young predicted an NBA Finals appearance, with the Sixers winning the Eastern Conference Finals in a seven-game slugfest.
“I think with all the divisiveness in the world and all the craziness that goes on, sports — the Sixers — they help us forget about the stresses of life for two-and-a-half hours. And yeah we get stressed out during the game … [but] we all want the same thing,” he said.
“I think sports and the Sixers are a great way to merge interests and look past some of the negative, serious things that kind of separate us as citizens.”