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.
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 it's only after his death that Vince takes on full ownership of the team himself. This was not the case in reality for Josh Harris, who has jointly owned the team with David Blitzer through their venture Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, which won the bid to buy the team from Comcast Spectacor in 2011.
Even though Hustle writers Will Fetters and Taylor Materne made up the characters of Rex and Vince Merrick, it's understandable why some viewers may think that there could be some likeness to a true-to-life counterpart. The movie depicts the Merricks as a well-known and accomplished family in Philadelphia, similar to Josh Harris, who comes from a well-regarded family that has lived in Philadelphia for generations.
That's pretty much where the comparisons stop, as the ending of Hustle involves a more contrived plot, with Rex's daughter, Kat, saving the day and taking over ownership from Vince. Nothing like that has happened for the real owners of the 76ers, nor does it appear to be likely that Josh Harris will involve his family in his business ventures. The writers of the film fictionalized all of the main characters in Hustle, and so the Merricks are not based on the real owners of the Philadelphia 76ers.