"Horrible decision", "Philly fans in shambles" - NBA fans react to rumors of 76ers moving to New Jersey

Per reports, the state of New Jersey is interested in the idea of hosting an NBA team, focusing on the Philadelphia 76ers. The reports come after efforts to build a new arena in Center City, Philadelphia, hit repeated roadblocks.

"The state of New Jersey is making a serious push to convince the Philadelphia 76ers to move to New Jersey and into a new arena that would be built in Camden, four people familiar with the discussions confirmed to ROI-NJ."

Fans on X, formerly known as "Twitter," reacted to the news, defending the team's history in Philly.

"Nah. Sixers is synonymous to Philadelphia at this point. Would be weird to call it New Jersey Sixers," one fan argued.

"Too much history in Philly," another added.

Some fans joked about the potential move.

"Lmaooooo Philly fans in shambles," one fan commented.

"76ers a poverty team now?" another fan joked.

Other 76ers fans actually defended the potential move.

"NJ NEEDS A TEAM YES," a fan stated.

"Jersey is philly, there's literally no difference," a second fan argued.

Reactions to the report have been fairly mixed. A relocation would surely fire up fans in Philadelphia, but the 76ers already have ties to New Jersey.

The team's offices and practice facility are located in Camden, where the 76ers would move to. The facilities opened in 2016. Since then, numerous attempts to put the team in a new arena have fallen through.

76ers officials remain hopeful about staying in Philadelphia amid offseason

Despite the reports indicating New Jersey's interest in acquiring the 76ers has heated up, the team remains hopeful about staying in their hometown.

A 76ers spokesperson stated:

"We remain focused on bringing the state-of-the-art arena to Philadelphia, as we have seen for the last four years."

"We are hopeful to reach an agreement with the city of Philadelphia for legislation in September, which will allow the 76ers to open our new home in time for the 2031-32 season," said the spokesperson.

Philadelphia is in the midst of a busy offseason. So far, the team has resigned Tyrese Maxey to a max contract extension, resigned Kelly Oubre Jr. and Andre Drummond, and made the offseason's headline trade, adding Paul George to form a big-three.

The 76ers are set to contend in the Eastern Conference for the next 2-3 seasons and have a strong championship core intact with Embiid, George, Oubre and Maxey.