Are Hustle's Rex & Vince Merrick Based On Real 76ers Owners?
Warning: Major spoilers for Hustle.
In the Adam Sandler Netflix movie Hustle, actors Robert Duvall and Ben Foster play Rex and Vince Merrick, who many believe to be based on the real owners of the Philadelphia 76ers. Directed by Jeremiah Zagar, Hustle stars Sandler as Stanley Sugarman, a down-on-his-luck basketball scout for the NBA. Stanley comes across a brilliant player named Bo Cruz (Juancho Hernangomez) and does his best to prepare the young player for the upcoming NBA draft.
In Hustle, Duvall and Foster's characters are father-and-son joint owners of the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team. Duvall's Rex Merrick is appreciative of Stanley's work ethic, especially as his job takes him on the road scouting for new talent. But Rex's son, Vince, is not as welcoming to Stanley, often sidelining his efforts and blocking him from being promoted within the organization to assistant coach. After Rex's death, Vince takes on full ownership of the team and does everything he can to halt Bo's chances of getting into the NBA.
Related: Is Hustle's Kermit Wilts A Real NBA Player?
The speculation that the Merrick family is based on the real owners of the Philadelphia 76ers is not without merit, but it's simply not true. The characters of Rex and Vince Merrick are fictitious in their design for Hustle, and they do not resemble the real Harris family members who partly own the 76ers. There seems to be one commonality to speak of between the two families, but this similarity is not a strong enough argument to compare the two one-to-one.
In real-life, Josh Harris owns the Philadelphia 76ers with his business partner, David Blitzer. In Adam Sandler's basketball movie, Rex Merrick is viewed as owning the team for his entire career, and
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