A History Of Fly (and Bus) The Process

We may have lost the games, but at least Joel came to say hi.

This year’s Fly The Process is headed to New Orleans in February. The trip is titled “The Big Queasy,” and we’ll go on February 20th, right after Mardi Gras ends.

We’re working on one amazing addition to the trip which we hope to be announced within the week.

It’s a nice time to visit New Orleans, as the insanity of Mardi Gras is done, but every fun and amazing thing about New Orleans is still there, from the food to the music to the culture. It’s a very neat place to spend a few days. If you’d like to reserve your spot, just hit the link below.

Fly The Process: New Orleans

Man, I love Fly The Process. Although spending money to fly hundreds or thousands of miles to see this team seems to the craziest thing you can do, we end up having the most fun and normal trips, full of friends, couples, and families. It’s a nice reminder that we’re all sort of normal people just looking for a good time.

We’ve had lots of memories on the trips, which started with two bus trips. I documented them below.

Brooklyn (2016) - Ah, we were so young. So innocent. We took our first trip, just 100 of us in a couple of buses to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn to see the Sixers play the Nets. We had no idea that just a month from that bus trip, Sam Hinkie would leave us, and the world would change forever.

As was custom in the early trips, we got our asses handed to us. Bojan Bogdanovic scored like 50, and the Sixers were embarrassed. But at least Brett Brown visited us, and as we always showed early in the Process days, the results of the games didn’t quite matter.

Washington DC (2017) - The final year we did a bus, and the trip grew by about 4x from the first trip. A cavalry of busses left from Stateside Live (the then XFinity Live) after enjoying a drink paid for by Brett Brown (this would not be the last time he would do this.

The t-shirt was Andrew Sharp related (it said F**CK ANDREW SHARP, really) and Sharp actually joined all of us for a pre-game party in a bar that was confused and overwhelmed by the number of us there. It was pretty amazing.

The trip is most memorable to me for the reaction from the Wizards organization, who threatened to not let us on the court after the game, told us we couldn’t wear our t-shirts, and had security guards eyeballing us all night. I had to privately threaten them with what we could do publicly if they didn’t let us come.

We made ESPN as Joel joined us for the on-court photo after the game, and then tweeted about it.

Milwaukee (2018) - This was dubbed Operation: Shithole based on a Joel Embiid Instagram post labeling the city as such. The mission: to boo Malcolm Brogdon for winning the Rookie Of The Year when it should have been Joel or Dario. We were so against the idea of Milwaukee that we refused to stay there, and stayed in Chicago instead.

Amazingly, Brogdon was leaning toward taking a photo with the group with the ROY trophy, but was injured at the time and thought it was in bad taste.

Brogdon did not play, so we decided to boo Tony Snell in his place, who had done nothing wrong (I guess Brogdon also had done nothing wrong).

Fly The Process: New Orleans

As usual, the Sixers got fucking smoked, but the start of the game was amazing, with the Sixers dominating, and our large group so loud that Scott O’Neil noticed on TV, tweeted that he’d buy the group beers and pretzels, and then sadly found out it was me (who he did not like) after he made the promise.

This was a national TV game, and famously (or infamously) was the game that Doris Burke avoided saying the name and got herself banned.

Joel came to see us after the game, after motioning to us in the stands after our raucous response to their hot start.

Minneapolis (2019) - Maybe our most emotional trip yet was to Minnesota for a ‘Process Reunion’ of the Process Core Four of Embiid, McConnell, Dario and Covington. Earlier that season Roco and Saric had been traded to the Timberwolves for Jimmy Butler.

In another “the team doesn’t want us there” move, the Wolves refused to sell us the tickets until we promised not to boo, and Phans of Philly made a large donation to the team charity.

After the game, we got visits from TJ, Covington, Joel and Dario. Covington seemed incredibly touched by the entire ordeal. This was also the moment that the group chanted “not on Twitter” to an annoyed JJ Redick after the game.

Not lying when I say this was one of the best trips I’ve ever gone on. We also recorded a podcast in the hallway of the hotel we stayed at, with 100 or so Ricky folks sitting quietly on the floor watching us.

Rich Hofmann wrote this story in The Athletic about the trip.

Indiana (2019-2020) - Of all of the ridiculous trips, this one may have been the most ridiculous.

Suggested by Super Ricky Guy Jason Lipshutz, we decided to go to Indianapolis to see TJ McConnell play. That part isn’t ridiculous of course, that part is awesome.

The ridiculous part was that we did it on New Year’s Eve, and spent New Year’s Eve in Indianapolis.

Fly The Process: New Orleans

Of course, the Sixers got their asses kicked. But TJ came out to our New Year’s Eve party with his wife, took a photo with every person who attended, and told us the story of he had to explain to his teammates why we were booing the hell out of Malcolm Brogdon every time he touched the ball.

Austin/San Antonio (2023) - What an emotional one this was.

We decided to go visit Brett Brown after he got his first job after leaving the Sixers, back with the San Antonio Spurs.

Before we took the trip, I remember asking Coach Brown, “if we come down there and see you, will you visit with us after the game.” He said yes immediately, and did it. The few hundred folks settled in down in the lower level stands after the game and Coach held court with us, as we gave him the South By South Brett t-shirt before we left.

It seemed to mean a lot to him.

Los Angeles (2024) - This was an eventful as we traveled to Mike’s hometown.

Kelly Oubre gets five assists in a game for the first time and we go nuts for every one of them? CHECK.

BBall Paul takes over the game and our BBall Paul chants fill the arena? CHECK.

Daryl Morey and Kate Scott come and hang out with us as we watch March Madness at a sports bar near Mike’s house? CHECK.

We go and take a photo by the Kobe statue after the game while chanting BBall Paul with Matt from Mt. Joy and Amos Lee? CHECK.

Same gets said on the broadcast? ALSO CHECK.

Atlanta (2025) - This one, this one is for the real ones.

In the season from hell, we had decided to go to Atlanta, the place where we abandoned our trip in 2019. Before Covington and Saric got traded to the Wolves, the trip was to be to Atlanta, titled “Finding Paul Millsap.”

When the trade got announced, Phans of Philly just donated the hundreds of tickets they had already purchased to the Sixers Hawks game so we could change the trip.

This year, we decided to end up doing the Atlanta trip. The idea for the trip was ‘Dunk Away The Demons,’ supposing that if the Sixers dunked the ball a specified number of times, they would be free of their previous demons. I suppose we just didn’t get there soon enough. Who knows, maybe it got us VJ?

The good news was that the weather was nice, Atlanta is a fun down, and Adem Bona came out to say hi to us after the game and do a Q&A. What a nice guy. What a bad season.

New Orleans is going to be amazing. Hope to see you there.