PHILADELPHIA — Joel Embiid slammed the stanchion under the basket twice in quick succession.

Maybe that's an odd place for me to start, a rare low point in a night that had so many highlights. But the 7'2'' twice-redshirted rookie showed some frustration after he was whistled for an offensive foul, effectively sealing the game with five seconds to play.

I guess I could've started with the Dream Shake turnaround jumper from the free throw line, or the three-pointer, or the way he cut across the lane to swat Russell Westbrook's floater out of thin air.

But the fact that Embiid pounded the basket with just five seconds left reveals much about the kind of night it was inside the Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday. It was loud and intense, until that very moment, when the air was sucked out of the arena and the building grew quiet for the first time since the sold out crowd first trickled in.

Embiid's NBA debut was a loss. But it was not a laugher, as so many Sixers games have been the last three years. There was no emptying of the bench and no garbage time. The Sixers lost a hard-fought 103–97 battle with Oklahoma City, in a game that was tied at halftime, featured 13 lead changes and was within a possession or two for most of the night.

The fans, who serenaded Embiid with chants of Trust the Process and MVP, were strong and remained engaged throughout.

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One of my least favorite criticisms from the Sam Hinkie era—of which there were many to choose—was the notion that the fans could never forgive the team for what it was putting them through. Many critics, frequently from outside of Philly, asked if the fans would ever come back, as if they'd been driven to a state neither Hinkie's resignation nor any combination of ping pong balls could ever fix.

This has always been nonsense. And if Embiid's debut did nothing else, it proved this logic to be unfounded. Fans went crazy as structures behind both baskets shot out torrents of fire to accompany Embiid's introduction. They clanged red thundersticks together behind the visitors' basket during second half foul shots and many took the free giveaway t-shirts and swung them like makeshift rally towels during stoppages in play. The fourth quarter was filled with three-pointers where entire sections stood up while the ball was on its way to the hoop.

Even the inflatable dog mascot and a particularly enthralling game of musical chairs during a timeout were met with appropriate energy.

It felt like … a meaningful NBA game. Basically full of all the things you take for granted when your team is winning 50 games every year, and all the things noticeably absent when a mostly-empty arena is simply going through the motions.

Now, that's not to say this is certain to be the norm in Philly for the remaining 81 games this year. If the losses pile up and the novelty of seeing Embiid play wears off, the Sixers might not see crowds like this one regularly. Here's where we note that despite an encouraging Opening Night, Ben Simmons continued the annual tradition of high picks missing the start of the season with an unknown injury timetable.

While the fans are certain to come back eventually for a winner, this figures to be yet another year where growth and development are more important than the numbers of wins and losses.

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The Sixers have a unique challenge in the NBA, in that their fan base has been splintered into two camps—those who have trusted the process and those who have remained skeptical. Many fans have expressed willingness to wait patiently for assets to turn into superstars and eventual wins. Others believe the Sixers have filled their roster with the injured and the injury-prone, and they see no way out.

Both sides remain dug in, many on both sides still believe they're right and many on both sides are unhappy for different reasons. The anti-Hinkie crowd has a mix of apathy about the team and anger about being turned into laughingstocks, while the pro-Hinkie faction is enraged to see their leader forced to the point of resignation just as his plan was starting to bear fruit.

It's hard to know what the makeup was of the crowd before the tip, but Wednesday felt like a Process Trusters convention. Embiid showed many flashes of the potential that fans have gushed over since he broke out at Kansas. They chanted Trust the Process loudly and audibly, in front of a national audience on ESPN.

Embiid, who has become the emodiment of the process, couldn't help but express how pleased he was with the fans after the game. So even with Hinkie gone, the Trust the Process mantra is not going away any time soon