BillyV's Blog

3/8/08

The Wachovia Center is usually half-empty when they play, so almost no one has noticed, but the 76ers have won 11 of their last 14 games. 

And some of those fans who do show up are actually rooting for the Sixers to lose, on the basis that they'll get a higher draft pick.   But the Sixers players are only concerned about winning, which is at it should be.  Andre Miller continues to play the game the way it should be played: unselfishly.    I don't even care that he makes himself scarce after the game because he apparently doesn't like dealing with the media, apparently doesn't want the publicity.  I just care that he "plays the right way" (to borrow a phrase so often repeated by former Sixers coach Larry Brown. )

But a lot of credit for the Sixers winning ways also should go to Billy King.  I wrote in a blog last year that King was a lot smarter and more savvy than most fans think.  These players who are winning now are all King's guys.  That includes rookie Thaddeus Young, even though everyone, including me, said "What the heck?" when King took him in the first round of the draft.   Young is not only a tremendous athlete, but he has a lot of basketball savvy despite being a 19-year old rookie.

But it's too late to help King, who should never have been fired in the first place.

New G.M. Ed Stefanski has made only one move, trading away Kyle Korver.  It is possible that move helped the Sixers, because they are now free to run, run, run, which is what they do best.   And Stefanski did make the decision to bring Mo Cheeks back for another year as coach.   A lot of people didn't think Mo was a good coach, but he, Young and the rest of the Sixers are answering the doubters, even if there aren't a lot of people taking notice.