Face it: It’s time for a trade
The Sixers came so close a year ago, only to prove without a doubt that the window to an era of championships built around The Answer was not meant to be open for more than a split second.
Last week, a wit suggested to me that if the Flyers were a comedy, then the 76ers were a tragedy in the making. Brother, was he correct.
The tragedy is that the Sixers can't win with Allen Iverson and Larry Brown, not in the same town, on the same team. Not now, not ever.
And Brown says he is not going anywhere; and as a sure-to-be Hall of Fame coach, Brown has that cachet, unlike poor Bill Barber.
In this scenario, it's the player who must go. Even if that player is Allen Iverson. This surely must happen after Brown's terse rebuke of Iverson was followed by the truly bizarre ramblings of a scolded, wounded and obviously confused Iverson last night.
These two men, now so thoroughly entwined in the mutual discontent and twisted up in their battle of wills, cannot and will not ever be able to coexist long enough for the franchise to think in terms of a championship again.
And that is a tragedy, one that cannot be denied, only accepted at this sad juncture. Because of what might have been. Because the Sixers came so close a year ago only to prove without a doubt that the window to an era of championships built around The Answer was not meant to be open for more than a split second.
The window is closed, now, nailed shut by Brown's revelations of his still-simmering ire over Iverson's work ethic, or lack thereof, caulked for good measure by Iverson's profanity-laced return fire of confusion, pleading and anger.
What did Iverson say, and why did he say it during his televised turn in front of reporters yesterday? Who truly knows? But the show, so emblematic of what is now completely a theater of the absurd, shows just how broken, and irreparable, the situation is.
Of course, we knew that the moment Brown charged right through any pretense and picked apart his star player's approach to the game and the team.
The harshness of Brown's now-familiar assessment was as surprising as the need for the rebuke again.
Brown's words, immediately after the Sixers' first-round playoff elimination by Boston, certainly were no way to treat an MVP. That says a heck of a lot about the esteem in which the coach now holds a player one year removed from an award-winning season.
Last year's giddy run to the NBA Finals fooled everyone for a moment. Yet the truth is, no common ground - not even a tiny inch - ever was found.
The coach who lives to teach has had his fill of butting heads with the protege who declined to be taught the old-school way.
Practice, practice, practice, forever the mantra of Brown and every coach and player he admires, remains, now and forever, anathema to Iverson.
"If I can't practice, I can't practice. If I'm hurt, I'm hurt," Iverson insisted yesterday. "It's not about that. It's easy to sum it up when you talk about practice. I'm supposed to be the franchise player, and we're in here talking about practice. Not a game - we're talking about practice. How silly is that?
"I know I'm supposed to be there, I know I'm supposed to lead by example, I know that. I'm not shoving it aside. I know it's important, but we're talking about practice. "
It's as if he heard nothing when Brown put it as clearly as possible Saturday when underlining with bold ink his opinion on how Iverson needs to change.
"My problems with Allen have been the same for six years," Brown said. "I love him, his competitiveness. I'm proud of the way he tries in every game. The issues are things he has control over, and he'll have a problem with me if he doesn't take care of it. He has to be at practice. He has to set an example. He knows that if he's willing to do that, he'll be a Sixer for life. "
Until they agree on that point - and you know they never will - there is very little reason to assume that they will ever speak the same language or agree on how to take the Sixers to that next level.
So, blow it up, guys. Admit that the era is over. Philadelphians can take it. They know that's Philadelphia. They know that's how quickly things can crumble at the sports complex.
One day's parade preparations become the next day's incriminations. And there's rarely any reason to even try to turn back and fix the damage.
The bottom line? The Sixers are, if not a mess, a team needing a new direction.
Iverson is not yet ready to accept that harsh truth. Sadly, it no longer matters whether Iverson protests; whether he professes love of coach, city and country; whether he promises to do what is needed to stay a Sixer.
It is time to bring this chapter to a close. That’s the tragedy of it - such a waste it makes you want to laugh and cry at once, a mix of emotions Philadelphia teams have elevated to an art. The thing is, who knew the Sixers would be subject to this silliness so soon after the season of MVPs, hopes and dreams?