With Simmons, it really starts now for Sixers

T HIS STARTS NOW!!!

No, seriously, no kidding, this time the Sixers really mean it.

It's easy to be skeptical of the ill-fated slogan for the season-ticket renewal campaign the Sixers rolled out on Feb. 15, 2015.

Within days of the release of the promotional poster and video, one of the three attractions of the campaign, point guard Michael Carter-Williams who was the reigning rookie of the year, got traded.

That led to a quick editing job that removed images and references to Carter-Williams from the campaign material. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, you can still view the originals if you want.

The second blow to the campaign struck when center Joel Embiid, the No. 3 overall pick in 2014 who already had missed his rookie season with a foot injury, needed additional surgery to the same foot and was ruled out for 2015-16.

Center Nerlens Noel was the only player from the original poster who ever played a game for the Sixers after "This Starts Now" was unveiled.

That's water under the bridge now.

On Thursday, the dawn of a new era of Sixers basketball began when Louisiana State freshman forward Ben Simmons was selected by Philadelphia with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft.

The versatile, 6-10 Australian was a consensus All-American and is touted as a "franchise-altering" prospect.

Simmons is considered the best prospect the Sixers have drafted since taking 2016 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Allen Iverson with the first overall pick in 1996.

The potential superstar franchise maker has finally come back to Philadelphia.

"My first reaction is it has a better chance of starting now then maybe it did when we first said it was going to," said Sixers coach Brett Brown. "I think we would all admit that."

Considering the bad karma surrounding it, the phrase "This Starts Now" should get the Exodus treatment. Let it be stricken from the record and made illegal the way Sethi did to the name Moses in the 1956 film, The Ten Commandments.

So let it be written, so let it be done.

Still, despite the toxic results associated with it, that star-crossed campaign is probably the best way to describe where the Sixers are.

A start is a point of creation.

Simmons is the genesis for the next era of Sixers basketball.

"Wow," team president Bryan Colangelo said of what he thought when he first saw Simmons. "Size, skill, he's got everything. He's the full package as a basketball player.

"The things he is capable of doing on the court can be special. If things go right, he should have a long career. He should have an impactful career.

"Philadelphia should be happy to have Ben Simmons. The fans are going to be happy with what they see."

This city was in desperate need of basketball revitalization - hope for the first time since Iverson was in his prime that the Sixers had a player capable of raising it to the highest level.

That's what the initial tearing down during the 2013-14 season was about. It's just that the intended target - Andrew Wiggins - went first overall to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Embiid was intriguing enough that he could have been sold as well as Wiggins, but the foot injury that cost him his rookie season made that impossible.

Simmons is the complete package: a star player with the marketing appeal that can turn a franchise in a city into the city of that franchise.

Think of Cleveland without LeBron James or the Bay Area without Steph Curry or Oklahoma City without Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.

The truth is you don't think of them - just like nobody outside of Philadelphia has thought about the Sixers since Iverson was done.

It matters.

Simmons matters. If he becomes the player everyone hopes and accomplishes what everyone believes he can, the Sixers become a national team again.

Considering Simmons' roots, the Sixers can become Australia's team the way the Houston Rockets became China's team when Yao Ming was there.

The Sixers have the opportunity to become the first NBA team that is claimed by a continent.

"Ben comes with quite a bit of fanfare and notoriety," Colangelo said. "The appeal of this organization and the brand is going to be affected in a positive way.

"Star power in this league means a lot. I'm not saying we've anointed him a star or the league has, but you can see how much interest there is in Ben Simmons, from endorsements and commercials and late-night television.

"He's a star figure in his own right at his age. I think if he does the things that are expected from a basketball standpoint and improves to be the best possible player, the sky is the limit. That means good things, positive things for this organization."

Colangelo knew he had to run out of the gate at the speed of light with his team-building agenda, and Simmons was sitting there waiting for him.

Sometimes the best decision is to make the simplistic one.

In Simmons, Colangelo has his trunk. Whatever moves he makes in free agency and/or trades can be done based on how they will facilitate a team built around Simmons.

That's a beginning. That's what has started now for the Sixers.

@SmallTerp