Behind the Scenes of the Philadelphia 76ers’ Go-for-Broke Summer

Getty Images/Ringer illustration How did Daryl Morey deliver Paul George to Philly? With a mix of bad fortune and good luck. "It almost was like sort of fate," Morey says. Now, nine months after shaving off The Beard, the Sixers may have assembled their best team of the Joel Embiid era. The most misleading image of an NBA offseason is the introductory press conference—all smiles and laughs and mutual back pats. The player poses with a crisp, new jersey. Team officials gush. Everyone's happy, relaxed, as if the partnership were fated all along and assured of success. "It's a great day for Philly," Josh Harris, the managing partner of the Philadelphia 76ers, said last week as he settled in for the perfunctory ritual, with the newly signed Paul George, a nine-time All-Star, to his left. "Obviously, it's not very often that a franchise can land a player of Paul's caliber," Harris added, accurately. At the other end of the table, to George's left, sat a beaming Daryl Morey, the Sixers team president and chief architect. This was, of course, exactly the outcome the Sixers hoped for last fall, when they made the roster moves that would position them to pursue George, who projected to...