Top > Sport > 2006 > February > 2006-02-13

No Love in the City of Brotherly Love

A lot of people have been speculating for years whether or not a team can be successful with a scorer such as Allen Iverson who hogs the ball most of the time. I for one think that the AI criticism is misplaced and unjust. In his entire career in Philly, Iverson never had a legitimate second option on offense. The only thing that comes close to that is Chris Webber who is way past his prime.

As Cheeks continues to try to enforce a defensive mentality, yet the team gives up over 100 PPG on 46% field goal shooting despite having a fine individual defender in Andre Iguodala and a shot blocker in Samuel Dalembert who is averaging over 3 blocks a game. As the Sixers try to make a trade of reserve center Stephen Hunter for a couple of draft choices to the Hornets, only to see the trade ultimately dissolve due to an unnamed chronic medical finding on Hunter.

Another problem for Billy King is the fact that the Sixers bench currently consists of such ?household? names as Shavlik Randolph, Michael Bradley, Kevin Ollie, Zendon Hamilton, Matt Barnes, and Louis Williams. In short, don?t be quick to blame AI for things beyond his control.