Berks man key part of new documentary on 2000-01 Philadelphia 76ers

Jun. 5—When the first message showed up on Facebook, Clif Duquette basically ignored it.

"I thought I was being catfished," he said. "It was just a random Facebook message. I get random spam messages all the time in my other accounts."

But the sender was persistent. She also sent a message to Duquette's wife, Lee Marie.

She wanted to get in touch with the Clifton Duquette who wrote the 2012 book "The 76ers with Iverson: Reliving the Ride," for a documentary on the 2000-01 Philadelphia 76ers.

"I'm like, this just sounds nuts," said Duquette, a 2004 Wyomissing grad and now a Spring Township resident.

Eventually, Duquette, who did write the book, got back to Brittany Hardy, who really is a producer for Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (WBD Sports), and became a key part of the documentary "Everything But the Chip: The 2001 76ers," which premiered on NBA TV on May 31.

"He was truly a great asset to this whole entire doc," Hardy said. "He really was."

For Duquette, the fact that someone noticed his book — 10 years after it was published — and that he ended up being interviewed and being on camera is surreal.

"They had Allen Iverson, they had (coach) Larry Brown, they had Shaq (O'Neal), they had Stephen A. Smith, all the players," he said. "And then it's me."

This unexpected time in the spotlight really began in 2001 when a 15-year-old Duquette was in attendance at the then-FirstUnion Center for the Sixers' magical run that ended with a five-game loss to O'Neal and the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.

"I went to all of the home playoff games," he said. "It was a thrilling experience for me. I'd never seen anything like that before. Years later, I always knew I wanted to write a story about it."

Duquette said he did a 20-page version for a homework assignment when he was in 10th grade.

Over time, as he went to and graduated from Saint Joseph's, then worked part time in the Reading Eagle sports department for four years starting in 2010, the book was written and rewritten.

"I was working on it for nine or 10 years," he said. "I thought I had a unique perspective to share. I figured maybe I can bring something different to the table and write it from a fan's perspective so that it invokes a lot of the thoughts and feelings and the memories that other people had at the time. It's meant to just help people to experience it all over again."

The book remains available on Amazon, and appears to be the only one written about that Sixers team.

That is what drew the attention of Hardy's supervisor, and she used it as part of her research — marking pages with sticky notes — which she said also included newspaper articles, old TNT coverage and NBA.com coverage, among other things.

"I just bought it and I read it and it was good, because that's 2001," she said. "Clif's book just helps you go back in time, and I guess connect all the dots.

"His book was definitely essential."

Duquette also became a resource that Hardy went to during the entire process.

"He knows everything down to the stats of every single player that year, the game stats, down to the second," she said. "Sometimes I would call him just to clarify some stuff. There was one time when I called him to clarify something and he was like, 'No, no, no, Brittany, I'm telling you that didn't happen. This is what happened, this is exactly how it happened.' "

Duquette was interviewed on camera by Hardy in Philadelphia in December.

He is one of 15 interviewees who appear in the documentary. Iverson and Brown are the key voices, but also included are then-76ers president Pat Croce and general manager Billy King, players Aaron McKie, George Lynch, Eric Snow and Theo Ratliff, Sixers broadcasters Marc Zumoff and Tom McGinnis, and O'Neal.

Also providing commentary are Smith, who was then the Sixers beat writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and rapper Freeway and DJ Jazzy Jeff, who are Sixers fans.

"For me, it's not just sticking with the principal people," Hardy said. "You have to get different perspectives on what was happening at that time and an outside voice. And Clif served that for sure during this doc."

There was a watch party on the night of the premier — which just so happened to be the 40th anniversary of the Sixers winning their last title in 1983 — at P.J. Whelihan's in West Lawn that was attended by friends and family of Duquette. Chris Pruitt, the CEO of East Penn, where Duquette is a project manager, was there, too.

Duquette said he was anxious going into it. He knew he was going to be on TV, but didn't know how much or how he would come across.

He actually appears — or perhaps more accurately his voice is heard — for nearly 2:30 in the documentary that lasts 90 minutes, including commercials.

"The best part was when they showed Allen Iverson stepping over Tyronn Lue," Duquette said of the iconic moment after Iverson hit a shot in overtime in the Sixers' Game 1 win in the finals, "right when they show that, I am the very first person to comment on that. They don't go to AI or Larry Brown or any of the other celebrities, they go to me. They show my reaction to that. Once I saw that, you know what, I'm good. I'm good. Peace out. That's great."

Hardy said she's gotten positive feedback from the former Sixers via calls or text messages.

"To me as a producer, I want to be able to bring stories alive and tell it the right way," she said. "I don't want someone to ever watch a doc that I've produced that they are a part of and feel like I told their story the wrong way.

"I wanted to make sure that everybody that is a part of this doc, including Clif, is OK with how I told this. To get the validation from everybody that it was told the right way, that's what makes it fulfilling for me, and I'm very, very happy about that."

Duquette remains a Sixers season-ticket holder. He was at Game 6 against Boston, when the team squandered a chance to clinch the second-round series — "when they broke everyone's heart like they love to do," he said — before losing Game 7.

"I still love going to games," he said, "and this just amplifies the whole thing. It's pretty miraculous.

"Seeing all the celebrities up there and me, it's weird. It's just crazy."