I’m going to be absolutely honest – the reason why didn’t write about Billy King’s firing is because I was too full of glee. Is that mean? Yes, of course it is. I spent yesterday visiting every philadelphia sports and national sports site to read the articles and more importantly, the comments.
Here’s the long and short of it: Ed Stefanski, a Philadelphia native has replaced Billy King as the general manager and president of the Sixers. Stefanski was the GM and president of the New Jersey Nets. Apparently, Ed Snider had been courting Stefanski for several months, even though publicly he supported Billy King. How underhanded is that?
There’s a theme. Billy King is the most reviled celebrity in Philadelphia. Let’s put that in perspective: when the Eagles were playing under Kotite and Ray Rhodes, and were absolutely god-awful, only one game that I know of was blacked out (Eagles vs. Cardinals, Eagles won). King had made such a mockery of the Sixers franchise that attendance is averaging under 11K. The Sixers used to have the one of the best attendance records of any franchise in the NBA.
It’s worse than hate – it’s apathy.
Billy King was the GM under Larry Brown – yes, “under”. It’s no secret that Larry Brown called the shots and King signed the papers. Once Brown took off for greener pastures (his title with the Pistons, for instance) the team was and currently is a wreck.
The national post does a great breakdown on King’s record:
Here’s a look at some of the questionable decisions during King’s tenure since May of 1998:
First-round duds:
- 1998, Larry Hughes, 8th overall
- 2000, Speedy Claxton, 20th overall
- 2002, Jiri Welsch, 16th overall
- 2006, Thabo Sefolosha, 13th overallCoaching carousel:
- 2003: Larry Brown resigns, Randy Ayers hired
- 2004: Randy Ayers fired, Chris Ford becomes interim coach
- 2004: Chris Ford replaced by Jim O’Brien at season’s end
- 2005, Jim O’Brien fired, Maurice Cheeks hiredContract albatrosses:
- Chris Webber’s contract was bought out last season, but he’s still on Philadelphia’s books for $12-million this season.
- Canadian centre Samuel Dalembert will make $9.68-million this season, and $12.2-million in the final year of his contract, 2010/11.
- Depth forward Reggie Evans is also signed through 2010/11 after an off-season trade. He’ll make an average of more than $4.5-million a season.
- Andre Miller, the 31-year-old point guard obtained in the Iverson trade, makes $9.3-million this season and nearly $10-million next season.
There are some addendums: Jiri Welsch was traded for John Salmons. Thabo Sefolosha is with the Bulls, after being traded for Rodney Carney. Out of all the players King drafted, only Carney is still with the team.
Dalembert’s contract is bad, but so is Willie Green’s, and Kyle Korver’s. Andre Miller’s contract isn’t King’s fault, though – in the NBA, you have to trade contract for contract, so Miller’s huge, undeserved contract matched Iverson’s well deserved contract.
And the post doesn’t even get into Glenn Robinson, Lee Nailon, or Keith Van Horn.
In the end, King was lucky. He was allowed to stay with the Sixers for ten years, when these sorts of screw ups would’ve gotten him fired in his second or third year with any other team.
To revist Snider’s backstabbing: King was fired after losing to the Hawks. That there was the cellar that the Sixers landed in… the Hawks hadn’t beaten the Sixers at home in three years.
The Hawks were the same as the Sixers – except they recently drafted well and picked up key veterans and are slowly working their way back to legitimacy. Losing to the Hawks means the Sixers are now the blueprint for drafting poorly and handing out outrageous contracts.
And that just couldn’t stand.
So what does the future hold for the Sixers? You can imagine that lousy contracts will be off loaded for draft picks and other talent. Dalembert is probably gone, since he’s shown no interest in improving his game. Willie Green is overpaid and will be traded. Korver? He’s a good shooter, his contract isn’t terrible compared to everyone else’s – he’ll probably still be here.
Will Larry Brown still be a special advisor? Will Mo Cheeks still be the coach?
Hmm…
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One Comment
They have to keep Ashton Kutcher!
Mainly because it’s funny that he looks like Ashton Kutcher.
So what’s this Stefanski guy like, anyway? Is he reasonable?