Call Him Markelle 'Philly' Fultz
PHILADELPHIA, PA (CBS) — Now it's official. After a trade with the Boston Celtics, after the myriad of unsubstantiated rumors settled, Markelle Fultz is a member of the Philadelphia 76ers.
This is a good thing, because there's a lot of Philly in Fultz, who the city should immediately embrace. He's the 19-year-old who was knocked down and kept getting back up.
A knockdown can always tell a lot about an athlete. Michael Jordan was once cut from his high school basketball team—like Fultz—and suffered more than his share of knockdowns by the "Bad Boy" Detroit Pistons before winning six titles in eight years. Larry Bird was toppled by Magic Johnson and Michigan State in the 1979 NCAA championship before going on to win three NBA MVPs and three NBA championships.
In this city, the core group of the greatest Phillies team ever with Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton, Larry Bowa, Bob Boone and Greg Luzinski endured a 91-loss season in 1972 before eventually moving forward to win six National League East Division titles in eight years through the mid-1970s and early-1980s, and the team's first World Series in 1980.
Bernard Hopkins lost his first pro fight before embarking on a hall of fame-worthy career that garnered millions.
So after Fultz's name was called by the 76ers with the first pick in the NBA Draft Thursday night, it seemed an instant fit on and off the court—and in the Philadelphia sports fabric.
The quicksilver 6-foot-4 guard from the University of Washington, by way of fabled DeMatha Catholic High School in Washington, D.C., plays with a chip on his shoulder—almost as wide and heavy as Philadelphia's sports fans carry. He carries a torch from the time he wasn't named high school player of the year in his area, to the time he was cut at DeMatha his sophomore year, to why the Celtics passed up on him as the No. 1 pick.
There's an edge there that has made Fultz crank out 700 shots a day, that motivated him to stretch boundaries only he knew he could approach.
It stems from a very Philadelphia attitude—to prove you wrong. It's an attitude "B-Hop" has lugged throughout his career. It's what pushed him, and it sounds like it's what will push Fultz, who appears to have Allen Iverson-esque ability wrapped in a blue-collar package.
Fultz was sixth in the nation in points per game, averaging 23.2 points a game—and the only freshmen among the top 10 NCAA Division I scorers. He also averaged 5.9 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game with a 55.8 shooting percentage. According to Synergy Sports, "Fultz's play in pick-and-roll is outstanding — 30.4 percent of his offensive possessions have involved him trying to score as the ball-handler and he's averaging 1.01 points per possession (PPP) (93rd percentile) in those situations. That outpaces the other top point guards in this class — Lonzo Ball (0.81), Dennis Smith Jr. (0.78) and De'Aaron Fox (0.84) — by a significant margin.
The 76ers haven't made the playoffs in five years. In that time, it's a team that sunk to new depths, like the 10-72 season two years ago. Now with Fultz, Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and Dario Saric, the 76ers have a talented, young, identifiable core that's already lured 14,000 season-ticket holders towards next season.
Hopefully the drafting of "Philly" Fultz marks the end of "The Process" and the beginning of winning for a loyal fanbase that's tolerated more than its share of losing.