76ers fire GM/president King

[Eggcentric at aol.com]

We didn't expect much from Philly this year anyway, but what 
the heck has gone wrong with CHICAGO?   Pre-season, I felt they
Detroit, and Orlando would record more wins than we did.

Deng, Heinrich, Gordon (all having a sub-par season) seem 
to be sending a message to FIRE Scott Skiles, on a par with 
the Knick's players sending their message to FIRE Isiah.   
Player's character seems more important than Gerald
Green hops these days in the NBA.   In his 5th season 
with the Celtics, Danny seems to have finally caught on to 
this concept or at least fallen into it.

But back to Rivers - player revolt will likely not happen in 
Boston.   Despite his lack of pre-game planning and in-game 
strategy,   Coach of the Month Rivers is in the right place 
at the right time. He is a player's coach, a PR necessity, 
and a media darling through and through.   

The media has loved him from the start. He is a pretty
neat person in the real world.   But   I just can't help but 
to compare him to the Colin Powell of the Bush administration.
 

Egg
---------------------------------------------

76ers fire GM/president King; Nets GM Stefanski fills role

By DAN GELSTON, AP Sports Writer
December 4, 2007

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The 76ers fired general manager and team 
president Billy King on Tuesday and replaced him with New Jersey Nets 
general manager Ed Stefanski.

 New Jersey Nets president Rod Thorn confirmed the move to 
The Associated Press.

 "He's been a big part of our success here the last seven years," 
Thorn said. "He's a wonderful guy. Very competent. I'm sure he'll 
do a great job there."

 The Sixers called a news conference for later Tuesday.

 King, who had been with the franchise since June 1997, had said he was using 
this season as the start of a three-year rebuilding plan. The Sixers are 5-12 
and in last place in the Atlantic Division. After reaching the NBA Finals in 
2001, Philadelphia has missed the postseason three of the last four years and 
King traded former MVP Allen Iverson to Denver last December.

Stefanski served as New Jersey's general manager since 2004.

King, who was in the final year of his contract, did not immediately 
return a request for comment.

Even with the Sixers in last place in the Atlantic Division, the timing comes 
as a bit of a surprise. Chairman Ed Snider had never publicly wavered in his 
support for King and let him make both the Iverson trade and select three 
first-round draft picks last June.

 No decision was immediately announced on the status of coach Maurice Cheeks, 
who also is in the final year of his contract.

 King tried everything from changing coaches, making blockbuster trades and 
signing players to overpriced contracts to transform the Sixers back among the 
elite, but nothing worked.

 He gave Jim O'Brien a multiyear deal to coach in 2004, then fired him after 
a playoff appearance. A blockbuster trade that brought Chris Webber to 
Philadelphia backfired and the disgruntled former All-Star was bought out of his 
contract last year. They also haven't seen the desired results in their record as 
Samuel Dalembert, Kyle Korver and Willie Green have not lived up to the hefty 
contract extensions signed under King.

 The Sixers failed to reach a contract extension with leading scorer Andre 
Iguodala before the season started.

 King said in the preseason he wasn't concerned about his lame-duck status.

 "I really don't worry about that because I have a job to do," King said. 
"You could have a multiyear contract and that doesn't mean anything in terms of 
job security. I just worry about the job I have to do. I know what our goal 
was, what our plan was to do and I think we're headed in that direction."

 King started with the 76ers as vice president of basketball administration 
in 1997 and was promoted to general manager less than a year later. He was 
named president in 2003.

 The Sixers reached the Eastern Conference semifinals under coach Larry Brown 
in both 1998-99 and 1999-2000, lost to the Lakers in the finals in 2001 and 
made it five straight postseason berths in 2002-03.

 They've been mired in mediocrity or near the bottom of the East ever since 
that five-year run. They lost 88-79 to the Atlanta Hawks on Monday night.

 So they've turned to Stefanski, a Philadelphia native who played basketball 
at Penn. He teamed with Rod Thorn to reshape the Nets and is known as a sharp 
talent evaluator. Stefanski also served as New Jersey's director of scouting 
for four years and helped bring Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson to the Nets.

 AP sports writer Tom Canavan contributed to this report.






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