Philadelphia 76ersThe Philadelphia 76ers (also known as the Sixers for short) are a professional basketball team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They play in the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA) By the early 1960s, the NBA's Nationals were struggling. Syracuse was the last of the medium-sized cities, but it was too small for a professional team to be profitable. In  1963 the team was sold and moved to Philadelphia. The NBA thus returned to Philadelphia one year after the Warriors had left for San Francisco. A contest was held to decide on their new name and the winner was the late Walt Stahlberg. Their name was changed to the "76ers", after 1776, the year the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia. After a long history of playing at the Spectrum the team currently plays in the Wachovia Centre.