PHILADELPHIA — Hell hath no fury like that which the city of Philadelphia reserves for players and teams that overpromise and underdeliver. That can be a difficult truth to understand for those who hail from locales where people do not regard local professional teams as fundamental components of their personal identities. A sports fan in Philadelphia watches their team play a game the same way a more normal person might watch a construction crew build their dream home. They want their contractors to operate with the same level of care they would personally exhibit if they were out there doing the job themselves.

In the spirit of fairness, I won’t assume that the Sixers are only grasping this concept now. At the very least, though, they have achieved a level of self-awareness that has been lacking in recent years. The shift in tone at the team’s pre-training-camp media day on Friday was downright startling. There was no talk of NBA titles. There was no emphasis on best-case scenarios. There was no insistence that the Sixers’ circumstances were anything other than what they appeared to be.

“I walk around Center City every day,” said team president Daryl Morey. “I see the excitement about the Eagles. I see the Phillies playoffs. This offseason was about working everyday to get ourselves back in those conversations. ... We know that we’re at the point where we have to go out there and show it. Nobody’s really interested in anything until we can turn the page and put a lot of wins up on the board and show the city that we’re the 76ers everybody knows we can be.”

It’s a great image. Morey sits alone on a park bench in Rittenhouse Square. In the distance, Howie Roseman plays ring-around-the-rosie with a barefoot Dave Dombrowski and a bunch of Sixers season ticket holders. Morey feels a tap on the shoulder and turns to find a little boy in the Sixers jersey. His face brightens for a moment. The little boy bashfully asks Morey if he is Jason Kelce. He sighs and looks at his feet and sees that his ice cream has toppled off the cone.

It would be easy to write off Morey’s sentiments as the forced humility of a man whose only other option was delusion. He’d already tried defiance, insisting at last year’s trade deadline that he still believed the Sixers could be a contender. Over the next nine weeks, they won four more games. Only a fool would try to sell the Sixers as anything greater than what they are: a team coming off a 24-58 season whose hopes depend on two aging, surgically-repaired superstars who may not be ready for Opening Night.

Maybe I’m the fool, then. But it struck me as something greater. Not Morey’s comments specifically. Rather, the fact that they so closely mirrored the comments of each of the players who spoke before him.

The day began with Joel Embiid. For maybe the first time in his career, he arrived five minutes early for a media availability. He also said the thing that he (and the team) should have said at this point last year.

“I think, like, I wanna be as honest as possible,” said Embiid, who missed the first two weeks of the season and played in just 19 games after the Sixers spent the summer they were championship or bust. “I think going forward, I’m just going to listen to the body. I’ll be honest and say it’s going to be unpredictable at times and that’s OK. We got to work with that. We got to take it day-by-day, and go from there, so I think the only thing I’m focused on is every single time we’re on the right path, keep going. If there’s something that happens in that time, it’s OK. Just focus on fixing it and keep going. That’s my mentality. I know the situation that I’m in and it’s just taking it day-by-day and just listening to the body.”

Even if this year goes like last year, at least nobody will feel misled.

Same goes for Paul George, who will miss the start of training camp and quite possibly the start of the season as he recovers from offseason knee surgery. He used the phrase “rock bottom” to describe a 2024-25 season in which he looked glaringly ordinary. Last summer’s big ticket free agent signing, still under contract for three more year, George expressed an outlook that was matter-of-factly realistic. He was open about the status of his knee without oversharing. The post-surgical swelling has been going down as he has continued to ramp up. That is a good sign, but one that will be evaluated day-by-day. He thinks he will eventually get back to being an impact player. But it will depend on his body.

“I think it’s everything,” George said. “Again, getting healthy, I’m the Paul George that the Sixers went out and signed. I do think I’ve still got a lot of game in me. Playing at a high level, that’s still who I am. I’ve got to get to that point.”

Such a basic level of forthrightness may not seem like much. In fact, it may even sound depressing. But for the first time in a year, George and Embiid sounded the right message.

We want to be out there. We’re trying like hell. But we can’t predict how our bodies will respond.

The notable thing is that the Sixers seem to understand the source of their fans’ frustration. Last season was the culmination of a total messaging failure as much as it was anything. No amount of communication would have presented 24-58. But they could have avoided making their fans feel as if they’d been played for fools.

This year, for at least one day, there was an intentionality to the Sixers’ message. No longer did they come across as a reshuffled collection of stars speaking for themselves. They spoke with the consistency of message that you get from well-run organizations.

“I think the biggest thing that I’m trying to accomplish is we need a standard,” Tyrese Maxey said. “Like, this is who we are no matter every single day no matter who plays, no matter who doesn’t play. When you see the Philadelphia 76ers, this what you see. You’re going to see that team every single night, every single time you turn that TV on, every single time you step foot in whatever arena that we’re playing in. This is the team that you’re going to get.”

I suspect Maxey has a big role in this. The Sixers are two teams right now. Maxey is the veteran of a young group of talent that has a chance to create its own identity. The question is whether that will be hampered by the veterans on Team B.

For at least one day, everyone sounded the right note.

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