The Dallas Mavericks received some serious criticisms from both NBA fans and personnel alike recently, as the club seemingly decided to wave the proverbial white flag and purposefully lose their recent matchup against the Chicago Bulls. The loss officially eliminated the Mavs from playoff contention and, subsequently, improved their odds of keeping their 2023 first-round draft rights, which will go to the New York Knicks should it fall outside the top 10 selections. In the days directly following the presumed tank job, Sixers head coach Doc Rivers issued a statement that poked fun at Dallas' decisions.

Sunday morning, NBA beat writer Yaron Weitzman shared on Twitter Rivers' comments after being asked if there's “anything to do” about teams like the Mavs purposely losing contests. His response: “How dare you? I’m the coach of the team with the Process.”

Of course, Doc Rivers is referring to the era known as “The Process,” which was a period in recent Sixers history (mid-to-late 2010s) where the club focused on losing as many games as possible to accumulate high-value draft capital.

Ironically, it is the team that made tanking in the modern NBA popular in Philadelphia that finds itself gunning for title contention heading into the 2023 postseason.

At 53-28, the team holds sole ownership of the third seed in the Eastern Conference standings and boasts the third-best record in the entire association.

On top of this, the main reward from the club's tanking days in Joel Embiid looks to be the frontrunner to take home this year's MVP award.