Bob Ford: Sixers' new era is introduced with excitement and enthusiasm

The new era in Philadelphia 76ers basketball began Friday night at the Wells Fargo Center with lights, music, dancing girls, special effects, smoke, loud introductions, and video on the big screen.

None of this was necessarily an invention, of course. It wasn't as if the previous era under the impatient stewardship of Father Comcast was played in a dimly lit gym in front of a bunch of old guys wearing fedoras and smoking cigars.

There have been all of those sideshow elements before - and perhaps even a management that would have known this isn't the year to call the dance group "The Dream Team." Bad karma.

But reinventing the game-night wheel that will turn the direction of the franchise is no easier than reinventing the team that will have to carry the heaviest burden on the court. For now, the new ownership group has to be forgiven any small missteps because they are being made with excitement and enthusiasm. It is really a perfect corollary to the team itself, which is also exciting and enthusiastic, but still a ways from determining its potential.

The theme of the night and the theme of the season is based on reaching back into the annals of team history and tying the current unit to the threads of past greatness, especially the 1983 championship team. It's sound marketing, even if no one mistakes Andre Iguodala for Julius Erving or, so far, Evan Turner for Andrew Toney.

Erving and Toney were in the house Friday night, along with Bobby Jones, Moses Malone, and some others from the glory days. It's nice to be remembered, and, despite the smoke and music and drumbeats for the incumbent heroes, the old guys got the loudest introductory ovations of the night. No surprise there. Bernie Parent, Eric Lindros, and Bobby Clarke probably received the best receptions among past and present Flyers during last weekend's Winter Classic festivities.

Things were better in the old days, or it sometimes can seem that way. The world was younger, the electricity crackled in the Spectrum, and the teams occasionally won something. Very occasionally, if you happen to have an accurate memory, but nevertheless.

This new Sixers team is building something, and it has a lot of the pieces necessary to fashion an era of its own worth remembering.

"I watched all five of their games so far," Malone said at halftime. "The main thing with them is they play hard every night."