Ding Dong the Dingbat's Gone

by Bigmrcia

Fans are rejoicing on Broad Street once again. The man who has almost single-handedly destroyed the Philadelphia 76ers, Billy King, has finally been given his pink slip. To call him a lame duck GM would be a disgrace to lame ducks everywhere. King was a boil on the neck of the Sixers, allowed to fester as ownership concentrated more on hockey than basketball. With the Flyers erasing the memory of last year’s dismal run, Ed Snider and the powers of Comcast have finally looked to make the Sixers competitive. Normally when a team loses a remarkable amount of games, a coach is the scapegoat for poor performance. But in the case of the 76ers, how could you blame a guy for not winning when given a roster full of players who would be at best a third option anywhere else? When he came back to Philly as a head coach, I’m sure Maurice Cheeks was expecting a little help from the front office. Seemingly, the opposite kept happening. Chris Webber loafed his way into a buyout, and Allen Iverson was traded for less than his value. Undeserving, bloated contracts were also handed to Samuel Dalembert (the Haitian Sedation), Willie Green and Kyle Korver. The latter of the three is the only one who would even hold a little trade value as he shoots the three phenomenally…at times. Dalembert could have some trade value if his contract wasn’t bigger than he plays. Let’s not even get into the long list of King’s draft day duds. Hey Billy, there’s some great talent overseas you might have wanted to analyze. Ed Stefanski, now the former GM of the New Jersey Nets, will replace Billy King. I don’t know if it’s such a great thing to hire someone who was so readily available from a division rival, but maybe he knows how to win a little. Either way, he helped take the Nets from perennial bottom feeders to division overlords almost overnight. To Billy King I say good riddance. To Ed Stefanski I say good luck. Unlike in East Rutherford where the stands are half empty for a playoff team, in Philly the fans have passion. Our stands are half full for a cellar dweller.   From my blog at http://mikesphillysports.blogspot.com/