FixerWins
07-18-2006, 03:39 PM
sorry for the format, that's the way it was set up on the website.
John Smallwood | A season to forget, before it even starts
IJUST WANT TO be clear.
Chris Webber feels like he's unappreciated.
Allen Iverson doesn't mind if he is traded but would like to stay a Sixer, provided he gets teammates who care as much about winning as he and Webber do.
Can we just skip the 2006-07 season and get right to the part were Sixers president/general manager Billy King drives up to Secaucus, N.J., for the NBA draft lottery?
Training camp is months
away and this team is already
10 games out of the eighth and
final spot for the Eastern
Conference playoffs.
When King mentioned at the end of their dismal 38-44 season that he needed to "change the culture" around the Sixers, I'm sure he wasn't thinking it was
going to be for the worse.
But unless Iverson and Webber do something neither has
ever done in his NBA career - namely take some responsibility for their respective parts in the fiasco and then do something proactive to improve things - that's where things are inevitably headed.
Instead of acknowledging that the Sixers needed a collective
effort to be so bad last season, Webber and Iverson are passing the buck on any role they might have played in things going wrong.
Last Thursday on Comcast SportsNet's "Daily News Live," Webber claimed he, "was made to be a scapegoat," for the Fan Appreciation Night debacle that culminated the Sixers' miserable 2005-06 campaign.
Webber's belief is that the Sixers organization spun things so that he and Iverson were made to look bad after they arrived late for the last home game of the season and then didn't come out to acknowledge the fans.
As one of the primary mudslingers, I'll be the first to admit that Iverson and Webber were painted in about as negative a light imaginable for what happened that night.
But I didn't need any encouragement from the Sixers. In fact, I spent much of the evening fussing with Sixer officials who were trying to spin the blame away from the players and on to themselves.
It wasn't their fault that I happen to believe that two 10-year NBA veterans who were being paid $40 million between them shouldn't have to be told that part of their job was to participate in a night to acknowledge the supportive fans who made their $20-million paycheck possible.
Webber said that had he been asked, he'd have done whatever he was told.
My question is why should he have needed to have been asked?
Did he think someone was going to stop him if he said he was going out to greet the fans because this was the last home game and they supported us through a difficult year?
For Webber to come out 3 months later and claim he
was made a scapegoat, simply
reinforces my belief that he never cared in the first place.
Considering the Sixers haven't gotten one trade offer seriously worth thinking about, it's a good thing that Iverson said that he'd have no problem staying in
Philadelphia.
It's also great that Iverson still believes the Sixers can contend with he and Webber leading the way.
The problem is that when
Iverson added the Sixers, "need guys around me and Chris that are going to give 110 percent
every night, night in and night out," he basically said that every Sixer but he and Webber stunk and didn't care.
I've gotten enough e-mails to know that many of you agree with Iverson's assessment. In fact, some of you would also put Webber in the "bums around A.I." category.
But even if it were true, somebody explain to me how Iverson laying the blame on young players like Andre Iguodala, Kyle
Korver, Samuel Dalembert and Willie Green will help improve things?
Iverson might be correct when he said, "Anybody who has looked at any Philadelphia 76ers game sees what I bring to the
table every night."
Unfortunately, anyone who pays any attention to the Sixers knows that Iverson brings little of that same effort any day at practice.
Practice is where a superstar, team captain and leader can have the most influence on
affecting the mind-set of young players.
Maybe if Iverson gave a little more than 30 percent at practice, he'd set the kind of example that would teach younger players what it means to give the
110 percent he wants from them during games. It's a situation
we've tried to understand for
the past decade.
Fortunately, the Sixers' 2007 first-round draft pick is protected through No. 15, so can we just fast-forward to the ping-pong ball drawing?
If the past weekend was any
indication of how Iverson and Webber intend to lead team, what else is there to look
forward to?
John Smallwood | A season to forget, before it even starts
IJUST WANT TO be clear.
Chris Webber feels like he's unappreciated.
Allen Iverson doesn't mind if he is traded but would like to stay a Sixer, provided he gets teammates who care as much about winning as he and Webber do.
Can we just skip the 2006-07 season and get right to the part were Sixers president/general manager Billy King drives up to Secaucus, N.J., for the NBA draft lottery?
Training camp is months
away and this team is already
10 games out of the eighth and
final spot for the Eastern
Conference playoffs.
When King mentioned at the end of their dismal 38-44 season that he needed to "change the culture" around the Sixers, I'm sure he wasn't thinking it was
going to be for the worse.
But unless Iverson and Webber do something neither has
ever done in his NBA career - namely take some responsibility for their respective parts in the fiasco and then do something proactive to improve things - that's where things are inevitably headed.
Instead of acknowledging that the Sixers needed a collective
effort to be so bad last season, Webber and Iverson are passing the buck on any role they might have played in things going wrong.
Last Thursday on Comcast SportsNet's "Daily News Live," Webber claimed he, "was made to be a scapegoat," for the Fan Appreciation Night debacle that culminated the Sixers' miserable 2005-06 campaign.
Webber's belief is that the Sixers organization spun things so that he and Iverson were made to look bad after they arrived late for the last home game of the season and then didn't come out to acknowledge the fans.
As one of the primary mudslingers, I'll be the first to admit that Iverson and Webber were painted in about as negative a light imaginable for what happened that night.
But I didn't need any encouragement from the Sixers. In fact, I spent much of the evening fussing with Sixer officials who were trying to spin the blame away from the players and on to themselves.
It wasn't their fault that I happen to believe that two 10-year NBA veterans who were being paid $40 million between them shouldn't have to be told that part of their job was to participate in a night to acknowledge the supportive fans who made their $20-million paycheck possible.
Webber said that had he been asked, he'd have done whatever he was told.
My question is why should he have needed to have been asked?
Did he think someone was going to stop him if he said he was going out to greet the fans because this was the last home game and they supported us through a difficult year?
For Webber to come out 3 months later and claim he
was made a scapegoat, simply
reinforces my belief that he never cared in the first place.
Considering the Sixers haven't gotten one trade offer seriously worth thinking about, it's a good thing that Iverson said that he'd have no problem staying in
Philadelphia.
It's also great that Iverson still believes the Sixers can contend with he and Webber leading the way.
The problem is that when
Iverson added the Sixers, "need guys around me and Chris that are going to give 110 percent
every night, night in and night out," he basically said that every Sixer but he and Webber stunk and didn't care.
I've gotten enough e-mails to know that many of you agree with Iverson's assessment. In fact, some of you would also put Webber in the "bums around A.I." category.
But even if it were true, somebody explain to me how Iverson laying the blame on young players like Andre Iguodala, Kyle
Korver, Samuel Dalembert and Willie Green will help improve things?
Iverson might be correct when he said, "Anybody who has looked at any Philadelphia 76ers game sees what I bring to the
table every night."
Unfortunately, anyone who pays any attention to the Sixers knows that Iverson brings little of that same effort any day at practice.
Practice is where a superstar, team captain and leader can have the most influence on
affecting the mind-set of young players.
Maybe if Iverson gave a little more than 30 percent at practice, he'd set the kind of example that would teach younger players what it means to give the
110 percent he wants from them during games. It's a situation
we've tried to understand for
the past decade.
Fortunately, the Sixers' 2007 first-round draft pick is protected through No. 15, so can we just fast-forward to the ping-pong ball drawing?
If the past weekend was any
indication of how Iverson and Webber intend to lead team, what else is there to look
forward to?