GameThink: BREAKING NEWS…This just in, Billy King’s reign is over
**VOTE IGUODALA FOR ALL-STAR**
According to both Phil Jasner of the Daily News and David Aldridge of the Inquirer, Billy King has just been fired from his post as President and General Manager of the Philadelphia 76ers. Both news reports state that King will be replaced by Ed Stefanski, a Philly native and Penn Alum (Go Quakers!) who has been serving as GM of the New Jersey Nets. The stories both cited the poor attendance as the primary catalyst for this sudden move. Both stories also say that coach Maurice Cheeks will retain his position through the entire season.
Now, I am more than aware that there are many of you rejoicing out there with the demise of Billy King. But, news of this move seemed a little curious and awkward to me, to say the least. From the trade of Allen Iverson last year through to this season, Snider has repeatedly said he believes in the three-year plan that King presented. If that were the case, why make this move now? If the plan was a good one you were willing to back publicly quite often, then why fire the chief architect? If the plan was not a good one, why keep him around all this time, especially for such a potentially important draft as last year? If it were truly a referendum taken via absentee ballot, then that is truly an interesting concept.
It would not be the first time King and the Sixers have been involved in a move believing that the fan base would be happier. Many people believe the fans harsh opinion of Keith Van Horn’s disappearing act during the playoffs in 2003 was part of the motivation behind his trade that summer for Glenn Robinson. It was believed that fans would have hard time accepting him, therefore making him miserable. How much of that is truth and how much might be conjecture is unknown. However, if the fact that the fans stopped showing up due to lack of faith in the leadership actually led to a change in that leadership, well, I guess there is hope for Knick fans after all.
As far as Stefanski goes, I do not really know too much about him. I know he is local, which is a plus. However, I do not know much about his style or philosophy. I do know he came from the Nets, and was considering a major part of many of their most successful moves, including acquiring Vince Carter for “slop” and drafting both Richard Jefferson and Nenad Krstic. The one thing I have heard is that he is connected in Europe, which might mean a foreign big coming over for the Sixers in the coming years.
But what of the man? I would like to know just who he is and what he wants this team to become. For the first time in over a decade, there will be a basketball voice in charge of the Sixers who is not connected to Larry Brown, either physically or philosophically. What does he think of the parts of this team? Unlike King, he has no allegiance to these players. So, what does he think of Andre Iguodala, of Sam Dalembert, Thaddeus Young, Lou Williams, Kyle Korver and the rest?
Stay tuned Sixers fans. This should be an interesting ride.
BONUS: Previously on Passion and Pride, Press Pass: NBA weekend wrap and Monday montage on MVN | GameThink: “Fatigue Makes Cowards of Us All.” | GAME TIME: Homecoming Game & Memo to Management: Foreign talent is a foreign concept for Sixers
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29 Responses to “GameThink: BREAKING NEWS…This just in, Billy King’s reign is over”
December 4th, 2007 at 4:21 am
For real? WOW. I was just talking to Phil on e-mail! It’s about time…
December 4th, 2007 at 4:29 am
Yeah, I just saw it before I was getting ready to sleep. I was watching that new show Life online and just clicked around and stumbled on the story.
December 4th, 2007 at 4:31 am
Nice work Sean. Finally we’re getting somewhere. I can’t wait to hear what AG thinks. I bet you that BK’s failure to sign Iguodala also factored in.
December 4th, 2007 at 4:35 am
Thanks. I think you are right about that theory. The Iguodala thing was MAJOR, and you said that it was management’s screwup… He did draft Jefferson, so he likes Wildcats(lol). Maybe we could ask AG to ask Andre what he thinks about it. Probably does not have an opinion yet. Of course, this officially makes Mo a lame duck.
This is interesting because this is a guy that doesn’t really have a track record that I could find, so it is hard to get a peg on his philosophy. Guess we will have to wait for the man himself
December 4th, 2007 at 4:43 am
Tell you what Sean. Mo was already a lame duck this season. I think Andre has to be a little encouraged, since BK never really seemed sold on him. That’s speculation on my part, so AG will get the real scoop.
December 4th, 2007 at 4:49 am
That could work. I heard that JKidd really like Andre’s game from their time over the summer. And since JKidd walks on water for the Nets, that might influence Stefanski somewhat. The thing that intrigued me about Stefanski is his “foreign” connections. I was thinking draft picks and/pr free agents, but now I just thought of something. I wonder if that might mean he’d be willing to pull a D’Antoni out of his hat from Europe for the next coach? Hmmm…. Bring an Offensive guru for a more free and open attack, and then let old Fred “Mad Dog” Carter or Chris Ford or Aaron Mckie even run the defense, I’d be for it.
December 4th, 2007 at 6:25 am
Stefanski could be our Bryan Colangelo. Maybe Phil Jasner will get his wish to add foreign talent after all!
December 4th, 2007 at 8:45 am
SIDEBAR REGARDING FUTURE FOREIGN DRAFT PICKS: Mark it down - Ante Tomic will be a Sixers draft pick. Look him up. He’s from the same town as Sixers European scout Danko Cvjeticanin. The guy is 7′1″ or 7′2″. I mentioned him in the comments of this post over the summer. Interestingly, the Sixers worked out Young, Smith and Byars on that day along with Glen “The Pugnacious Papoose” Davis.
December 4th, 2007 at 9:16 am
[…] read it this morning on the best Sixers blog, Passion & Pride, (congratulations guys), and could not believe […]
December 4th, 2007 at 9:24 am
best news in the last 5 years
more power to P&P for posting it first. You sweetened my italian morning after I went to sleep at 4 AM to watch the Hawks loss, thanks guys
It will be the best loss I’ll remember… just posted a new article on my blog about how I feel: great (LOL)
December 4th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Merry Christmas fellas! Wow, anything is an upgrade in my eyes. If your team is losing, your complacent, and you refuse to sign your franchise player something has to happen.
I wonder if Snider made the call after saying “BK is our guy” on numerous occasions. I wonder what’s Mo’s status since BK was the only one saying “Mo is our guy”.
It’s probably not official yet but anyone taking a post?
December 4th, 2007 at 9:56 am
My bad, I didn’t read the rest of the entry. Nice job Sean.
December 4th, 2007 at 10:01 am
So what’s next?
Do we keep with the three stage plan and hope to bring in big name free agents?
Do we blow up the Sixers? And rebuild through the draft?
Is there a trade out there to bring in Veteran Help. Will Iguodala be placed on the trading block?
Will he bring in that Euro coach that Truehoop’s been talking about?
How do I feel about this? Well, to be honest, paranoid with a touch of hope. Much better than frustration and failure.
December 4th, 2007 at 10:07 am
Jon: The change of culture that Billy King called for is finally being applied to himself.
Just want to post this here, I took a class in Knowledge Management this semester, one of the big things the teacher (a professional consultant) kept harping on was “Change the Culture.”
New clients would talk to him about “changing the culture” and he would shoot back to them “You are the culture.”
December 4th, 2007 at 10:15 am
That’s exactly right Dervin. It’s amazing that you can actually apply the stuff they teach you in higher education. Billy King’s made mistakes, but what manager hasn’t? When you talk about changing culture, it has to start with YOU. Everyone is accountable for their actions.
December 4th, 2007 at 10:26 am
Sean,
Since he has no prior notions or connections coming in, I would like to see what he thinks also. Does he see that Thad should be playing (if nothing else for fan’s sake) or that Willie Green isn’t a starter. Does think that Lou is our future pg or that Rodney Carney is nothing more than a trading piece. Hopefully he does something soon to right the ship.
December 4th, 2007 at 10:54 am
I wouldn’t classify him as having no prior notions or connections. Not only has he been the Nets GM since 2004, he was the VP of BB Op for one year prior to that and the director of scouting for several years during their Eastern Conference title runs. He was directly responsible for helping to build those teams.
In more recent memory, he drafted Sean Williams over Jason Smith and selected UConn teammates Marcus Williams and Josh Boone. He had a hand in drafting Krstic and Jefferson, as well as trading for and resigning Carter. And he signed Cliff Robinson about 13 times, give or take 10-12.
He also has history with the Big5 schools and played for Penn. I wonder if he would be interested in trying to bring in another former Penn guy, Dave Wohl, who was with Boston last year under Doc?
December 4th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
About time! He should have been fired a long time ago.
December 4th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
Didn’t Stefanski also trade a lottery pick, Eddie Griffin, for three number ones, that turned out to be Jefferson, Collins and Brandon Armstrong. One of the best moves in the last ten years in the NBA.
December 4th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Yes, Ed. That is credited as Ed’s best move. Compare that with Billy King “trying” to move up in every draft and you get the picture. Too bad he wasn’t brought in prior to the draft. If he was, then maybe we’d have Sean Williams instead of Jason Smith. I like Smith though and Williams is off questionable character, which I tend to shy away from when you’re in rebuilding mode. I doubt Stefanski would have gotten a better deal for Iverson, but he sure as hell would have made better use of picks 21 & 30.
December 4th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
I’m amazed it took this long. The laundry list of bad trades and bloated contracts can stretch halfway across the country. It was time years ago.
December 4th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
I also posted this over at Deep Sixer - the blog of the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Marc Narducci (beat writer for the Sixers). I posted one typo in my comment on Narducci’s blog, see if you can find it!
“Here’s another simple comparison for you. In the 2001 draft, Stefanski (director of scouting under Thorn) helped engineer the trade of the 7th pick (Seton Hall and Roman Catholic’s Eddie Griffin) to the Rockets in exchange for the 13th pick (Richard Jefferson), 19th pick (Jason Collins), and 24th pick (Brandon Armstrong). Gee, wasn’t Billy King trying to do the opposite with the 12th, 21st and 30th picks this year? Difference is that Stefanski gets what he wants accomplished, where Billy is left consoling himself that he did the best he could. In the end, the best wasn’t good enough…
Seriously folks, how many ways can we cuts this to show that this is a great move? Y’all need to click on my name here and recognize!”
December 4th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Stefanski screams Gambler to me, which can be a good thing, because if you have solid character people as leaders(i.e. the Andres, Lou Williams, Korver, even Green), then you could gamble on a reclamation project with talent.
December 4th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Sean,
Isn’t that why King selected Thaddeus Young though? The coach has to actually, you know…PLAY the project!
December 4th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Christmas was what came to mind when i heard the news. OMG, you cannot imagine the atmosphere of peace and joy on the local 76ers forum here in Taiwan as the news rippled through the fans.
While I don’t think this move would take too much of a toll on the already messy performance of the team (the Hawks game exemplified just how ineffective we are at this moment), I hope this management change won’t hurt the players’ confidence. They still need to buckle down and play good defense in the hopes of creating offensive opportunities.
If you check 82 games.com, you’ll see that the Sixers are posting a pretty good percentage of assisted FGMs. The problem is, we don’t have enough people who can create their own offense. The team FG% is low, and Andre Miller is relied on to take too many shots, which is never a good indicator.
As for Ante Tomic (a.k.a. A-tomic?), Draftexpress says he’s just naturally weak, being pushed around even in the European painted area. But he does have a strong offensive repertoire. I feel like we already have the fashionable “athletic big man” in Jason Smith, and perhaps should look for a solid presence to back up Sammy D while knocking Reggie Evans to the bench (the guy doesn’t play good D). My friend roots for the Georgetown senior, Roy Hibbert, while I’m setting my eyes on Michael Beasley. What do you guys think?
Lastly, a short highlight reel I made to celebrate what could be Lou-Will’s breakout year: his 19-points performance in the 4th quarter against the Raptors back in November
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOGhMkbxCUc
December 4th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
it’s a great moment for Sixers fans worldwide, guidos in Italy, Taiwan (!), Poland, Spain !!!! I read all the blogs of the in’tl network and our guys are pumped up, good stuff
Hopefully this other eraly december move makes us start a new era
Go Sixers and thanks again to Jon, Anthony, Arick, Sean from Passion & Pride for posting it first, for the good posting and the analysises !!
More to come on all Sixers blogs soon, I guess, damn I can o to bed happy, what a great day !
December 4th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Actually a guy I intrigued by is John Riek. 7′2” Major athlete. Said to be Odenesque in terms of defensive impact, with good hands and aggressive offensively. Plus, he’s only 18. He is from the Sudan and is considered an International player, so the talk is that he might be coming out this year. Sounds like a “risk” for Fast Eddie to look into.
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insider/columns/story?columnist=ford_chad&page=08NBADraft-071120
http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/John-Riek-1317/
December 4th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Intriguing…thanks, Sean
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