The Philadelphia 76ers are set to fire team president Billy King and replace him with Nets GM Ed Stefanski, reports David Aldridge of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The Sixers are 5-12 this year, dead-last in the Atlantic Division. A source told Aldridge that coach Maurice Cheeks would remain with the team through the end of the year.
King was originally hired by the Sixers as Vice-President of Basketball Administration in 1997, then in '98 was promoted to general manager, and in '03 to team president/GM. The Sixers' last trip to the finals came under King's stewardship in 2001, when they lost in five to the Shaq/Kobe Lakers. It's been all downhill from there: The team hasn't made the playoffs since the 2004-05 season, and last season was forced to trade Allen Iverson, once the cornerstone of the franchise.
King's Sixers tenure mirrored that of Timberwolves GM Kevin McHale. Both deserve credit for bringing their franchise to a certain level of competitiveness, but also deserve blame for not being able to seal the deal. Both had a superstar player around whom to build - Iverson for King and Kevin Garnett for McHale - but failed to add enough good parts around them to make consistent runs at titles. You can argue that McHale's failure was worse, in that the Wolves never made the NBA finals but only the conference finals once, and that a great big man like Garnett is a rarer commodity than a great guard, making the squandering of Garnett a greater crime. But King's failure to bring a title to Philadelphia, with Iverson in place, still qualifies as an egregious one. Now it will be up to Stefanski to rehabilitate an organization that has become a doormat.
Permalink | Send To A Friend | Linking Blogs | Digg this!
Filed under:
Philadelphia 76ers
Tags: allen iverson, billy king, ed stefanski, kevin garnett, philadelphia 76ers
