After Larry Brown left to become head coach of the Detroit Pistons, the Sixers hired Randy Ayers as his replacement.
However, at midseason, Ayers was fired after a 21–31 start, and interim head coach Chris Ford took over for the rest of the season.
Superstar guard Allen Iverson had a rough year in which he had clashed with coaches and skipped a number of practices.
The Sixers lost 15 more games than the previous season, finishing fifth in the Atlantic Division with a 33–49 record and missing the playoffs for the first time since 1998.
The Sixers traded Keith Van Horn to the Knicks, as well as Randy Holcomb and a 2007 first-round draft pick to the Hawks.