Don’t stop with Doc Rivers. Time to burn the Philadelphia 76ers to the ground

Beneath the mental fragility that led to the Sixers' humiliating playoff exit is a gutless, joyless organization that is betraying their devoted fans. Only a scorched-earth rebuild will do

Sixers fans, answer me this: are you better off today than you were 10 years ago? It's the same question posed by out-party politicians since time immemorial, but Sunday's spectacular face-plant against the Boston Celtics that prompted Tuesday's sacking of head coach Doc Rivers demands a far more wholesale inquest of Philadelphia's once-proud basketball team. And the picture is not a pleasant one.

With a three-games-to-two lead over their archrivals in the Eastern Conference semi-finals - needing one win from two cracks for the team's first trip to the NBA's final four in more than two decades - the Sixers let the Celtics off the hook in Game 6 and were blown out of the gym in Sunday's decider. Boston star Jayson Tatum, whom Philadelphia passed over after trading up for Markelle Fultz in the 2017 draft, gored them for 51 points - the most in a Game 7 in NBA history. In a city where sports famously mean a little too much, the Mother's Day Massacre will leave scars.