King Denies 'Iverson Survey'

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">They say dead men tell no lies, and I can't see why people who have been paying several hundred dollars a game for Sixers tickets season after season would, either.

So last night, after the Sixers dropped a 123-99 decision to the Phoenix Suns at the Wachovia Center, I listened with great interest as several "high-end" season ticketholders talked to me about an unofficial survey conducted by a Sixers official concerning possible life without Allen Iverson.

Did it happen?

I'm not a season ticketholder.

I wasn't surveyed. I don't know.

The Sixers deny it took place.

I asked general manager Billy King about it in an e-mail and he responded, "WE NEVER DID THAT. I would place my reputation on that.
"If I was going to trade anyone, even Allen, I would not ask season ticketholders. If I ever did my job [like that] or the organization did that, I would QUIT."

This is what life is like in Sixersville these days.

Rumors, talk, innuendo are the daily routine concerning a .500 team with a suspect direction and a veteran superstar who may have outgrown his usefulness to the organization.

Back in the mid-1980s, the Clippers were looking for a ticket attraction and offered Terry Cummings, a talented young player who was the second overall pick in the 1982 draft, for an aging Julius Erving.

Since it would have given the Sixers bookend stud forwards in Cummings, who made a couple of All-Star teams in a long career, and Charles Barkley with Moses Malone sandwiched in the middle, it was a no-brainer as a basketball decision.

But given Doctor J's iconic status and popularity in Philadelphia, it was understandable why the trade never came down.

Two decades later, you wonder if the Sixers might make a similar mistake concerning Iverson.

Considering what he's done here over the last decade, Iverson, more than any other Philadelphia athlete, deserves the right to decide whether he wants to stay or leave on his own terms. But professional sports aren't games, they are business, particularly nasty and ruthless businesses where things like loyalty and past performance really don't have a place in the equation.

It's the ultimate "what have you done for me lately" business.

And honestly, what is Iverson doing for the Sixers lately?

This has nothing to do with Iverson's talent. Despite being in his 10th season, he is still an elite NBA player. He still could help a lot of teams win a title. The Sixers just are no longer one of them.

There are only two reasons to keep a player as the centerpiece of your franchise: He can win you a championship or he is a ticket magnet who keeps the money flowing.

Iverson, through no fault of his own, is no longer either of those for the Sixers.

The loss to Phoenix, with Iverson sidelined again with a sprained ankle, erased any hope that the Sixers' modest two-game winning streak meant anything more than they had won two games against teams with losing records.

All last night did was reconfirm that the Sixers are exactly what their 23-22 record says they are: a mediocre team not really going anywhere.
And since King either can't or won't make the kind of impact trade that will improve matters, it's safe to say the Sixers won't be challenging Detroit, Miami or rising Cleveland for an Eastern Conference title any time soon.
They probably can't even beat equally mediocre New Jersey for the Atlantic Division title in any of the next few seasons.

So it's pretty much set in stone that the Sixers will not win a title in the Iverson era. Their loss to the Lakers in the 2001 NBA Finals will be the pinnacle moment.

That leaves Iverson as a gate attraction.

While fans were flocking into the Wachovia Center just to see the A.I. Show, I fully understood why Comcast-Spectacor chairman Ed Snider wouldn't let go of a guy who guaranteed near-sellout crowds.</div>

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