Slam Dunk Central

I guess this was going to happen sooner or later since the Philadelphia 76ers have been in “rebuild mode” since before Allen Iverson left the team, but I digress. In any event, Dan Gelston of the Associated Press reports that the team has fired general manager/president Billy King on Tuesday and replaced him with New Jersey Nets general manager Ed Stefanski.King, who had been with the 76ers since June 1997, had previously stated that he was using this season as the springboard for a 3-year rebuilding plan. Under King’s watch, the Sixers are 5-12 and in last place in the Atlantic Division. After reaching the NBA finals, Philadelphia has missed the playoffs 3 of the last 4 years; they also traded star guard Allen Iverson to the Denver Nuggets last December.

Even with the Sixers at 5-12, the timing of the firing seemed odd, as team chairman Ed Snider poured out his support to King, obviously giving him the freedom to trade Iverson and make the draft picks last June. King began his career with the Sixers as vice president of basketball administration in 1997; he was promoted to general manager less than a year later. He was named President of the team in 2003.

This much is known about King’s replacement - Stefanski played college ball at Penn in the ’70s, he also teamed with New Jersey Nets’ Rod Thorn to reshape the Nets is by and large known as a sharp talent evaluator who helped bring in Richard Jefferson and Vince Carter. He also worked as the Nets’ senior vice president of basketball operations for one year and was director of scouting for 4 years. Before joining the Nets, he was a college basketball color analyst for ESPN for 11 seasons. One thing is for certain regarding Stefanski - he needs to get swingman Andre Iguodala signed to a long-term contract as soon as possible, as the pther players on the squad, namely Kyle Korver, Willie Green and Samuel Dalembert, have not earned their paychecks, so to speak.

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