
It is hard to find someone more popular than Joel Embiid in Philadelphia. The documentary would then cover "the downturn of Iverson" followed by "the long stretch of mediocrity" that, in Levin and Eskin's estimation, necessitated the teardown that produced Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and the upswing that Philadelphia is enjoying today. Perhaps it's him hoisting the 2001 MVP trophy maybe it's the famous shot of him stepping over Tyronn Lue in the NBA Finals. If Levin was writing or producing a 30 for 30 about The Process - a recurring subject on The Rights To Ricky Sanchez - it would start with Allen Iverson. Levin thinks this fundamentally misses the point, as the philosophy behind The Process would have been correct "even if it didn't work out, even if Embiid never played." In order to understand the radical rebuild engineered by former general manager Sam Hinkie, Levin believes you must know what led to it. They have yet to win a playoff series, and they are certainly not guaranteed a championship in this era. One could argue that the Sixers have not accomplished anything yet. I'm just going to keep it in a closet and go to it when I need pudding." There's simply no way I can spend all this rightness in one place. "It's like getting a lifetime supply of pudding. "The fact that it happened so soon is an embarrassment of rightness," Levin said on a recent episode. Lately, the The Rights To Ricky Sanchez has felt like an extended victory lap.

Philadelphia is the hottest team in the league and the first in NBA history to enter the postseason on a 16-game winning streak. The idea of wanting them to win and being happy when they win and sad when they lose is just sort of what sports is, it's the normal thing, but for us we spent four years really not caring if they won and lost." And I know to a normal sports fan, to a normal person, that should sound crazy. "It's been really fun, and I think as it's gone on it's gotten more fun as I've gotten more comfortable figuring that out.

"It's been really, really strange," Eskin said. 3 spot in the East, and they are learning how to, um, process it all like regular people.

Their favorite team won 52 games in the regular season, earning the No. Less comfortable for Eskin, the program director at SportsRadio 94 WIP in Philadelphia, and Levin, a comedy writer in Los Angeles: Caring about the results of games, expecting the Sixers to win and thinking about how they match up with the Miami Heat. They have been co-hosting The Rights To Ricky Sanchez podcast for almost five years, and they are more than comfortable discussing the merits of fringe NBA players, preaching patience and calling out their critics. Spike Eskin and Michael Levin used to joke that, when the Philadelphia 76ers weren't bad anymore, they'd have to find a new team to talk about every week.
