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Big fan of Philadelphia basketball? Then check out this list of Philadelphia 76ers centers with photos and seasons played with the team.&nbsp;It includes almost every center from throughout Philadelphia 76ers history, including current centers and past ones. Featuring some of the&nbsp;<a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/greatest-centers-of-all-time?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">greatest NBA centers</a> of all time,&nbsp;the best 76ers&nbsp;Cs include Wilt Chamberlain, Moses Maloen, Darryl Dawkins, and Dolph Schayes.In the 2017-18 NBA season, the current Philadelphia Sixers&nbsp;starting Cs and backup Cs are Joel Embiid and Jahlil Okafor.&nbsp; Who are the best centers in Philadelphia 76ers history? Here is every player who has ever held the position of Philadelphia 76ers&nbsp;center.

The 25+ Best Philadelphia 76ers Centers of All Time, Ranked

The Best Philadelphia 76ers Centers of All Time

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Wilt Chamberlain

Wilton Norman Chamberlain (; August 21, 1936 – October 12, 1999) was an American basketball player who played as a center and is considered one of the greatest players in history. He played for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played for the University of Kansas and also for the Harlem Globetrotters before playing in the NBA.  Chamberlain stood 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) tall, and weighed 250 pounds (110 kg) as a rookie before bulking up to 275 and eventually to over 300 pounds (140 kg) with the Lakers.
Chamberlain holds numerous NBA records in scoring, rebounding, and durability categories. He is the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game or average more than 40 and 50 points in a season. He won seven scoring, eleven rebounding, nine field goal percentage titles and led the league in assists once. Chamberlain is the only player in NBA history to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game in a season, which he accomplished seven times. He is also the only player to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game over the entire course of his NBA career. Although he suffered a long string of losses in the playoffs, Chamberlain had a successful career, winning two NBA championships, earning four regular-season Most Valuable Player awards, the Rookie of the Year award, one NBA Finals MVP award, and was selected to 13 All-Star Games and ten All-NBA First and Second teams. He was subsequently enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978, elected into the NBA's 35th Anniversary Team of 1980, and in 1996 he was chosen as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History.Chamberlain was known by several nicknames during his basketball playing career. He hated the ones that called attention to his height, such as "Goliath" and "Wilt the Stilt". A Philadelphia sportswriter coined the nicknames during Chamberlain's high school days. He preferred "The Big Dipper", which was inspired by his friends who saw him dip his head as he walked through doorways. After his professional basketball career ended, Chamberlain played volleyball in the short-lived International Volleyball Association, was president of that organization, and is enshrined in the IVA Hall of Fame for his contributions. He was a successful businessman, authored several books, and appeared in the movie Conan the Destroyer. He was a lifelong bachelor and became notorious for his claim of having had sexual relations with as many as 20,000 women.

Joel Embiid

Joel Hans Embiid (born 16 March 1994) is a Cameroonian professional basketball player for the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). After one year of college basketball with the Kansas Jayhawks, he was drafted with the third overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft by the 76ers. Multiple foot and knee injuries delayed his debut for two seasons until 2016–17, when he was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team despite playing only 31 games. Embiid has received two All-Star selections. He has nicknamed himself "The Process" in response to a refrain from 76ers fans during the Sam Hinkie era to "trust the process".

Moses Malone

Moses Eugene Malone (March 23, 1955 – September 13, 2015) was an American basketball player who played in both the American Basketball Association (ABA) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1974 through 1995. A center, he was named the NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) three times, was a 12-time NBA All-Star and an eight-time All-NBA Team selection. Malone led the Philadelphia 76ers to an NBA championship in 1983, winning both the league and Finals MVP. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 2001.
Malone began his professional career out of high school after he was selected in the third round of the 1974 ABA Draft by the Utah Stars. He was named an ABA All-Star as a rookie and played two seasons in the league until it merged with the NBA in 1976. He landed in the NBA with the Buffalo Braves, who traded him after two games to the Houston Rockets. Malone became a five-time All-Star in six seasons with the Rockets. After leading the NBA in rebounding in 1979, he was named league MVP for the first time. He led the Rockets to the NBA Finals in 1981, and won his second MVP award in 1982. Traded to Philadelphia the following season,  he repeated as MVP and led the 76ers to the 1983 championship. In his first of two stints with Philadelphia, he was an All-Star in each of his four seasons. Following another trade, Malone was an All-Star in his only two seasons with the then Washington Bullets (today's Wizards). He signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Hawks, earning his 12th straight and final NBA All-Star selection in his first season. In his later years, he played with the Milwaukee Bucks before returning to the 76ers and completing his career with the San Antonio Spurs.
Malone was a tireless and physical player who led the NBA in rebounding six times, including a then-record five straight seasons (1981–1985).  Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Boards" for his rebounding prowess, he finished his career as the all-time leader in offensive rebounds after leading both the ABA and NBA in the category a combined nine times. Combining his ABA and NBA statistics, Malone ranks ninth all-time in career points (29,580) and third in total rebounds (17,834). He was named to both the ABA All-Time Team and the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team.

Dikembe Mutombo

Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo (born June 25, 1966) is a Congolese American retired professional basketball player. Mutombo played 18 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Outside basketball, he has become well known for his humanitarian work.
The 7 ft 2 in (2.18 m), 260-pound (120 kg; 19 st) center, who began his career with the Georgetown Hoyas, is commonly regarded as one of the greatest shot blockers and defensive players of all time, winning the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award four times; he was also an eight-time All-Star. On January 10, 2007, he surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the second most prolific shot blocker in NBA history, behind only Hakeem Olajuwon. He averaged a double-double for most of his career, and is 12th all-time in career double-doubles, and tied for second all-time in career triple doubles involving points, rebounds and blocks.At the conclusion of the 2009 NBA playoffs, Mutombo announced his retirement. On September 11, 2015, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Darryl Dawkins

Darryl Dawkins (January 11, 1957 – August 27, 2015) was an American professional basketball player, most noted for his days with the National Basketball Association's Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Nets, although he also played briefly for the Detroit Pistons and Utah Jazz late in his career. His nickname, "Chocolate Thunder", was bestowed upon him by Stevie Wonder. He was known for his powerful dunks, which led to the NBA adopting breakaway rims due to his shattering the backboard on two occasions in 1979.Dawkins averaged double figures in scoring nine times in his 14 years in the NBA, often ranking among the league leaders in field-goal percentage. He also played in the NBA Finals three times as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Dawkins set an NBA record for fouls in a season (386 in 1983–84).

Dolph Schayes

Adolph Schayes (May 19, 1928 – December 10, 2015) was an American professional basketball player and coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA). A top scorer and rebounder, he was a 12-time NBA All-Star and a 12-time All-NBA selection. Schayes won an NBA championship with the Syracuse Nationals in 1955. He was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History and inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Schayes played his entire career with the Nationals and their successor, the Philadelphia 76ers, from 1948 to 1964.  In his 16-year career, he led his team into the playoffs  15 times. After the Nationals moved to Philadelphia, Schayes became player-coach of the newly-minted 76ers. He retired after the 1963-64 season and stayed on as coach for two more seasons, earning NBA Coach of the Year honors in 1966. He briefly coached with the Buffalo Braves.

Chris Webber

Mayce Edward Christopher Webber III (born March 1, 1973) is an American former professional basketball player. He is a five-time NBA All-Star, a five-time All-NBA Team member, a former NBA Rookie of the Year, and a former number one overall NBA draftee. As a collegiate athlete, he was a first-team All-American and led the Michigan Wolverines' 1991 incoming freshman class known as the Fab Five that reached the 1992 and 1993 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship games as freshmen and sophomores. However, Webber was indicted by a federal grand jury and stripped of his All-American honors by the NCAA as a result of his direct involvement in the Ed Martin scandal. He is also a former National High School Basketball Player of the Year who led his high school Detroit Country Day to three Michigan State High School Basketball Championships, but never won any national championship in college or the NBA.

Derrick Coleman

Derrick D. Coleman (born June 21, 1967) is an American retired basketball player. Coleman was born in Mobile, Alabama, but grew up and attended high school in Detroit, and attended college at Syracuse University. He was selected first overall in the 1990 NBA draft by the New Jersey Nets.
Throughout his career, the left-handed Coleman was an effective low post scorer, averaging 16.5 points and 9.3 rebounds. He enjoyed his best years as a member of the New Jersey Nets, where he averaged 19.8 points and 10.6 rebounds per game. When Coleman entered the NBA, he was compared to elite power forwards such as Karl Malone and Charles Barkley, and expected to put up similar numbers, only with the added ability to shoot from three-point range. Instead, his career was overshadowed by numerous injuries. Sports Illustrated once remarked that "Coleman could have been the best power forward ever; instead he played just well enough to ensure his next paycheck."His Syracuse jersey number, 44, was retired on March 5, 2006.
As of 2007, he was working as a developer and entrepreneur in Detroit. He has also appeared as an occasional studio analyst for NBA TV's "NBA Gametime Live" coverage.

Rick Mahorn

Derrick Allen Mahorn (born September 21, 1958) is an American retired National Basketball Association (NBA) player who played power forward and center. He is currently a radio analyst for the Detroit Pistons  and works as a co-host/analyst on SiriusXM NBA Radio.
Mahorn was dubbed by Piston announcer George Blaha the "Baddest Bad Boy of them all." Mahorn gained a reputation for physical play, which he used to compensate for his relatively limited leaping ability. He served as a team leader of the Detroit Bad Boys teams of the late 1980s, winning his only NBA Championship in 1989 along with captain Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, and Dennis Rodman among others.

Elton Brand

Elton Tyron Brand (born March 11, 1979) is an American retired professional basketball player and the current general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). After playing college basketball for Duke, he was selected with the first overall pick in the 1999 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls, and later played for the Philadelphia 76ers, the Los Angeles Clippers, Dallas Mavericks and Atlanta Hawks. He was a two-time NBA All Star and an All-NBA Second Team selection in 2006.

Theo Ratliff

Theophalus Curtis Ratliff (born April 17, 1973) is an American retired professional basketball player who last played with the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers. Primarily a center, he was an excellent shot-blocker who had led the league three times in blocks per game.  As of 2018, he is ranked 20th all-time in career blocks.

Mike Gminski

Michael Thomas Gminski (born August 3, 1959) is a retired American college and professional basketball player and a college basketball TV analyst for CBS Sports. In 2003, Gminski was inducted into the National Polish American Sports Hall of Fame.

Caldwell Jones

Caldwell "Pops" Jones (August 4, 1950 – September 21, 2014) was an American professional basketball player.
Jones was drafted out of Albany State College (Georgia) by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 14th pick in the 1973 NBA draft. He played three seasons in the American Basketball Association and 14 seasons in the NBA, most extensively with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Jones led the ABA in blocked shots in the 1973–74 season, and played in the 1975 ABA All-Star Game. He shares (with Julius Keye) the ABA's all-time record for blocked shots in a game with 12.Jones' brothers, Charles, Wil and Major all played at Albany State and in the NBA.  The most prominent of the foursome, Caldwell Jones was best known as the least flamboyant member of the high-powered Philadelphia 76ers teams of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Playing alongside Julius Erving and company, Jones didn't need to score much with Philadelphia, so he concentrated on rebounding, shotblocking, and defense. A lanky yet strong 6-foot-11 pivotman, his hustle, board work, and defense kept him in professional basketball for 17 years.
Playing in his final season at age 39, he was the fifth-oldest NBA player ever to have suited up at the time. He finished with 10,068 points (in the NBA and the American Basketball Association), but it had taken him 1,227 games to rack them up. No other player who scored 10,000 points had ever needed more than 1,200 games to do so.

Jim Washington

James H. "Jumpin Jimmy" Washington (born July 1, 1943) is a former professional basketball player.  A 6'6" forward born in Philadelphia and from Villanova University, he was selected by the St. Louis Hawks with the 6th pick of the 1965 NBA Draft.  After one year with the Hawks, he joined the Chicago Bulls, where he became a fan favorite as the first Bull to average more than ten rebounds per game.  In 1967–1968, he averaged 12.5 points and 10.1 rebounds; the following season, he averaged 14 points and 10.6 rebounds.  Washington would also play for the Philadelphia 76ers, Atlanta Hawks (a later incarnation of the St. Louis Hawks), and the Buffalo Braves and retired with 6,637 career rebounds.

Nerlens Noel

Nerlens Noel (born April 10, 1994) is an American professional basketball player who currently plays for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association. His collegiate basketball career ended in his first season with a tear of his anterior cruciate ligament at the University of Kentucky. Noel was drafted with the sixth overall pick of the first round in the 2013 NBA draft by the New Orleans Pelicans. On July 12, 2013, the Pelicans traded Noel and their 2014 first round draft pick to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Jrue Holiday and the 76ers' 42nd pick in the 2013 draft, Pierre Jackson. Noel, a son of Haitian immigrants to the United States, played one season at the University of Kentucky. He plays center and power forward, and was one of the top high school basketball players in the class of 2012. He is known for his trademark hi-top fade hairstyle.

Tyrone Hill

Tyrone Hill (born March 19, 1968) is an American retired basketball player and, since 2008–09, assistant coach for the National Basketball Association's Atlanta Hawks. Hill spent four years playing collegiately at Xavier University, in his last season averaging 20.2 points and 12.6 rebounds per game, while shooting 58.1% from the field. The Golden State Warriors selected him with the eleventh pick of the 1990 NBA draft.After three years in Golden State, Hill was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the summer of 1993. Playing under Mike Fratello, Hill earned an All-Star Game appearance in 1995. He set Cleveland's single-season franchise record by shooting a career-best 60.0% from the field (and ranked second in the NBA). Hill was sent to the Milwaukee Bucks in a 1997 three-team deal involving notably Terrell Brandon and Shawn Kemp, and spent the remainder of his career between the Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland (2 stints; 1993–94 to 1996–97 and 2001–02 to 2002–03), and the Miami Heat.As the starting power forward for Philadelphia, Hill teamed up with Theo Ratliff and later with Dikembe Mutombo with whom he played in the 2001 NBA Finals, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers.  He is frequently referred to as the ultimate "lunch pail and hard hat" player, due to his rugged style of play and relentless defense and rebounding prowess.Hill had a career field-goal shooting percentage of 50.2 and free-throw percentage of 63.Tyrone also owned a Cincinnati, Ohio-based record company called All Net Records and released various singles and albums by groups including OTR Clique, D'Meka, Renaizzance, and KompoZur.Tyrone Hill Was Charged With Battery & Assault to A Cleveland City Worker In 2012 and Served 30 months in The Ohio State Penitentiary.

Samuel Dalembert

Samuel Davis Dalembert (born May 10, 1981) is a former Haitian-Canadian professional basketball player who last played for the Shanxi Zhongyu of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). He played college basketball for Seton Hall University. He is known for his shot blocking ability.

John Block

John William Block, Jr. (born April 16, 1944) is a retired American basketball player born in Glendale, California.
A 6'10" forward/center from the University of Southern California, Block spent 10 seasons in the National Basketball Association as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers (1966–1967), San Diego Rockets (1967–1971), Milwaukee Bucks (1971–1972), Philadelphia 76ers (1972–1973), Kansas City–Omaha Kings (1973–1974), New Orleans Jazz (1974), and Chicago Bulls (1974–1976).  Block had his strongest season in 1967–68, when he averaged 20.2 points and 11.0 rebounds for the Rockets, who had just entered the NBA as an expansion team. Block appeared in the 1973 NBA All-Star Game, and registered 7,106 total points and 3,965 rebounds in his career.

Red Kerr

LeRoy Ellis

LeRoy Ellis (March 10, 1940 – June 2, 2012) was an American basketball player.

Shawn Bradley

Shawn Paul Bradley (born March 22, 1972) is a German-American former basketball player who played center for the Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Nets, and Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). At 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m) tall, Bradley was one of the tallest players in NBA history. Bradley was born in Landstuhl, West Germany as his family was stationed at the U.S. Military base medical facility, and grew up in Castle Dale, Utah. He also holds German citizenship. Bradley was featured in the ESPN 30 for 30 short documentary "Posterized" given his propensity "for being on the wrong end of a lot of great dunks."

Clyde Lee

Clyde Wayne Lee (born March 14, 1944) is an American former professional basketball player. An All-American at  Vanderbilt University, Lee was the No. 3 overall pick in the 1965 NBA draft and was an NBA All-Star, playing ten seasons in the league.

Luke Jackson

Luke Ryan Jackson (born November 6, 1981) is an American former professional basketball player and the former head coach for the Northwest Christian University Beacons.

Bob Rule

Bobby Frank Rule (born June 29, 1944) is a retired American basketball player at center for the National Basketball Association's Seattle SuperSonics, Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers, and briefly, the Milwaukee Bucks.Earlier in his college career, Rule played under the legendary Jerry Tarkanian, then head coach at Riverside Community College, as a member of two state championship teams. A second round pick in the 1967 NBA draft, Rule quickly became one of the stars of Seattle's expansion franchise.  Named to the 1967–68 NBA All-Rookie Team, Rule's 18.1 points per game average stood as the SuperSonics rookie record for forty seasons, until broken by Kevin Durant.  His rebounding average of 9.5 is the second best ever by a SuperSonics rookie, behind only Pete Cross's 12.0 in the 1970–71 season.  Also during his rookie season, Rule scored 47 points in a game against the Los Angeles Lakers — still a SuperSonics rookie record.
Rule's game grew stronger during the next two seasons.  In the 1968–69 season, he averaged 24.0 points per game and 11.5 rebounds per game.  In the 1969–70 season, he averaged 24.6 points per game and 10.3 rebounds per game, set a then-SuperSonics record of 49 points in a game against the Philadelphia 76ers, and played in the 1970 NBA All-Star Game. In the 1970–71 season, Rule began the season averaging 29.8 points per game and 11.5 rebounds per game in his first four games before going down with a season-ending torn achilles tendon. He never regained his All-Star form after his scoring fell to 15.1 PPG the following season and saw limited playing time thereafter. By 1974 his career was over.

Spencer Hawes

Spencer Mason Hawes (born April 28, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the South Bay Lakers of the NBA G League. He was selected by the Sacramento Kings in the 2007 NBA draft and is the nephew of Steve Hawes, a retired NBA player.

Big fan of Philadelphia basketball? Then check out this list of Philadelphia 76ers centers with photos and seasons played with the team.&nbsp;It includes ...