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The Philadelphia 76ers (also known as the Sixers for short) are a professional basketball team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1946, Danny Biasone sent a $5,000 check to the National Basketball League offices in Chicago, and the Syracuse Nationals became the largely Midwest-based league's easternmost team. In 1949, the Nationals were one of seven NBL teams that merged with the Basketball Association of America to form the NBA. In 1955, the Nationals (led by forward Dolph Schayes) won the NBA championship. By the early 1960s, the NBA's Nationals were struggling. Syracuse was the last of the medium-sized cities, but it was too small for a professional team to be profitable. Paper magnate Irv Kosloff bought the Nationals from Danny Biasone and moved them to Philadelphia in 1963. The NBA thus returned to Philadelphia one year after the Warriors had left for San Francisco. A contest was held to decide on their new name and the winner was the late Walt Stahlberg. Their name was changed to the "76ers", after 1776, the year the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia. The nickname was quickly shortened to "Sixers" by headline writers, and the two names soon became interchangeable for marketing purposes. |
