Philadelphia Rebound Part I of III: Overthrowing the King
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by CRS-ONE
Yesterday marked an important moment in the Philadelphia 76ers rebuilding project: the firing of team president/general manager Billy King.
Philadelphia fans had enough of his ongoing rebuilding plans. Team chairman Ed Snider did, and King was axed yesterday.
Snider might have felt some pressure to act so quickly by looking at the other side of the Comcast Spectator offices. The Sixers' sister hockey team/Wachovia Center roommates the Philadelphia Flyers have been doing extremely well.
Something had to happen.
King had beeen with the since 1998 and had been extremely unsuccessful. I'm going to credit the Sixers rise from worst team in 1996 to the NBA Finals in 2001 to then co-owner Pat Croce's vision/leadership, Allen Iverson's marketability/talent and Larry Brown's coaching. As the president/general manager, it was King's job to build a team. Let's look at a bunch of his successes in the following categories:
Drafting
- Larry Hughes in 1998. Larry was heralded as the much needed sidekick for Allen Iverson. Didn't work out and was shipped off to the Golden State Warriors for scraps.
- Todd MacCulloch in 1999. A reserve center at best, but that wasn't his fault. He leaves as a free agent to the New Jersey Nets and signs a six year $34 million. King gets off lucky. King has brainfart and trades Dikembe Mutombo to the Nets for MacCulloch and Keith Van Horn, both of whom had previously had awful stints with the Sixers and without a doubt proved that white men can't jump. MacCulloch soon retired from the game with some awful nervous system disorder in his foot that affects something like 0.0003% of the people in the world. Since then, he's reinvented himself as a Sixers broadcast commentator and as one of the top 300 pinball players on the planet. Not bad for a seven footer.
- "Not so" Speedy Claxton in 2000.
- Samuel Dalembert in 2001. The Canadian/Haitian center has been frustrating with his inconsistent play. Some days he swats everything at the net. Then he'll let anyone get what they want at the basket. Sometimes he can score. Lots of times he can't. He was rewarded with a contract that pays him well over $9 million a year until 2011. That final season will net him $12.2 million.
- In 2002, he trade the rights to Jiri Wesch
- The Sixers only had a second round pick in 2003. Only the San Antonio Spurs and Utah Jazz can find talent that late in the draft, so he gets a walk on this one. He did manage to purchase the rights of Kyle Korver from the New Jersey Nets, which was a good pick up. Rewarding him with a hefty contract wasn't.
- 2003 was also another draft accomplishment, trading second round picks to get Willie Green. As a Sixer, he was subpar at best. During the summer of 2005, he blew out his knee while a free agent. As much as it sucked for him, I thought this would be good. Surely the Sixers wouldn't resign him now. Billy King did just that. And to a hefty contract considering how little he can actually contribute.
- Andre Iguodala in 2004. This one was a good one.
- Louis Williams in 2005. Imagine Iverson but without talent.
- Thabo Selofosha in 2006. Should have gone with Renaldo Balkman, Rajon Rondo or Paul Millsap. Would be a less sucky team now.
- Thaddeus Young in 2007. The guys is like the second coming of Todd MacC. They also traded away Kyrylo Fesenko to the Jazz, who has much more upside than Young. Go figure.
Free Agents/Trades
- Chris Webber. In 2005, King decided that it was time to do something to shake up the Sixers--in a good way. He decided to trade for this multiple time All Star. You would think that the Sacramento Kings got the short end of the stick, with a bunch of bench guys. They didn't. Webber was coming off of microfracture surgery, which took away his speed and explosiveness. That was the last year that the Sixers made the playoffs. Webber continued to complain, publicly feud with coaches, missed the 2005 Sixers Fan Appreciation event, killed locker room chemistry and morale, and was just a bad seed. Mind you that during this time, he was the highest paid professional athlete in the world. His time with the Sixers ended last season. Did they trade him to try to recoup some of the loss of having him around? Nope. No one would be stupid enough to take on that monster contract of his. The Sixers had to buy his contract out, giving him a boatload of money.
- Glen Robinson. In the summer of 2003, King willingly traded for a past-his-prime Big Dog. His one season was uneventful and he was traded at the deadline of the 2004-2005 season, not even playing a game with the Sixers, to the New Orleans Hornets. He was waived immediately and resurfaced with the San Antonio Spurs to be rewarded with limited minutes and a championship ring.
- Allen Iverson. After coming to the Sixers as the number one pick in 1996, AI grew into one of the most beloved athletes in Philadelphia. That city is a working class town, and he was there hero. He always played hard and wanted to win. Brash at first, he slowly matured into a leader. The problem with him was how vilified he was in the national media, whether it be for not wanting to go to practice, feuding with his coaches, recording a profanity laden rap album, scoring too much and not passing the ball, and everything else. The problem with the Sixers was that they had no support, as King didn't know how to build a team. That lead to Iverson being depended on for carrying his team. The team's record wasn't so hot, and King decided to trade his marquee player. Last season, Iverson was traded to the Denver Nuggets for Joe Smith, Andre Miller and scrubs. That's like trading in your brand new BMW for a Geo. And to make it worse, Miller gets around $9 million for the next two seasons.
- Steven Hunter. Granted he's just a reserve center, but it was a dumb move. They traded him to the Nuggets for an undersized Reggie Evans. At the pivot, there is no depth past Dalembert and rookie Herbert Hill.
Coaches
- Summer 2003- Larry Brown leaves the Sixers to coach the Detroit Pistons. Unfortunately the roster he traded for and signed didn't work out and he bolted for greener pastures. Apparently he doesn't follow John Kerry's "Pottery Barn" rule. Randy Ayers is his replacement. It should be noted that King was an assistant coach with the Indiana Pacers, so they have history. After Brown left a championship caliber Pistons on bad terms, he then coached an awful New Yorks Knicks team and was run out of the Big Apple. Where is Brown now? You guessed it--on the Sixers payroll as a consultant thanks to King.
- Winter 2004- Ayers is fired and replaced by Chris Ford. The new coach publicly feuds with Iverson.
- Spring 2004- Ford is fired and replaced by Jim O' Brien. JOB is coming off a decent run as the Celtics coach and has a lot of history in Philadelphia, as he played college and high school ball in the area.
- Spring 2005- After Chris Webber tries to lead an unsuccessful mutiny against O' Brien, he gets fired.
- Fall 2005- 1980s Sixer star point guard Maurice Cheeks is hired. It should be also noted that at his last job, coach of the Portland Trailblazers, he was fired for not being able to control the "Jailblazers."
All of this has crippled the Sixers fan base. This season, they are the second worst selling home team in the NBA. The only team worse is the New Orleans Hornets, and that's because a hurricane destroyed the region.
The Sixers are ready to rebuild and they have a new general manager. But is Ed Stefanski the solution?
This is part one in a three part series about the state of the Philadelphia Seventy Sixers. Tomorrow's article will go over new general manager Ed Stefanski and Friday's article will be about the future.
Competitiveness aside, having Iverson at least brought money in for the Sixers. This season, they're averaging under 12,000 people a game. The last time it was this bad was the 1995-1996 season.
I am being a little hard on Williams. I think he'll be a fine back up guard. I'm not strong on his defense, though.