Fansided

Blues Clues has grown up to become the 76ers news mascot

By Stanford Crissey

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The new Philadelphia 76ers mascot has been revealed — it’s name is Franklin and it wants your money and dog bones.

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The Philadelphia 76ers have a new mascot, and it’s a blue dog. No, not that blue dog, but it could be a distant relative of some kind.

Before the start of the season, 76ers owner Josh Harris announced that the team was getting a new mascot, which would be voted on by kids.

The mascot design was shown on Twitter by CBS’s Matt Moore:

Franklin was unveiled in a press conference today at 1 p.m. at Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute (no, it’s not named after the dog).

How a blue dog represents a “76er” is unclear, but then again, there’s no good physical representation of a 76er, because that’s not a thing.

Like any good mascot, Franklin introduced himself to the world through dance:

In fact, Franklin has his own Twitter account. On it, he (assuming the blue dog runs his own account) announced that his debut will be Feb. 20, and that the first 5,000 kids to arrive at the Sixers game that day get his jersey.

Additionally, kids get into the March 6 game for free, as part of another Franklin-related promotion.

The bio of his account says “let’s mark our territory together, Philly.” I’m going to take a moment to implore Sixers fans not to take that literally.

Franklin also called out the Nets’ Robin Lopez, who has a bit of a history with NBA mascots, having once dragged Hooper, the Detroit Pistons mascot, off the court. Strangely, that was not his first fight with Hooper. To his credit, Franklin seems unafraid of Lopez:

It’s unknown how Franklin fits into the Sixers’ extreme rebuilding plans (which some would call tanking). The trade deadline is coming up, maybe he can be their new center? It would at least provide a more entertaining way to lose.

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