76ers Face Iverson For 1st time

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">DENVER - On Dec. 8, 2006, a fateful date in 76ers history, coach Maurice Cheeks told longtime superstar Allen Iverson, in essence, to go home and never come back.

That was the last time the two men spoke. They never even said as much as goodbye to each other after the Sixers consummated the trade of Iverson to the Denver Nuggets on Dec. 19.

So when they see each other tonight at the Pepsi Center, when the Sixers get to play against Iverson for the first time in his 11-season NBA career, will Cheeks talk to him?

"I'll see how it goes," Cheeks said yesterday. "If I see him, I'll reach out."

To say that it will be odd for Cheeks and the Sixers - not to mention people watching on television in the Philadelphia area - to see Iverson in another uniform is an understatement. Even Cheeks agrees.

"Very obviously, it's going to be different," the coach said.

But the reality became inevitable after a Dec. 6 meeting in Chicago, when Iverson told Sixers general manager Billy King that if the team was not going to change, he didn't want to be a part of it anymore.

King started working the phones seeking a deal. Two days later, at a morning shoot-around before that night's game against the Washington Wizards, Cheeks told Iverson not to bother coming to the arena, and that he wouldn't be accompanying the team on its flight to Orlando after the game.

Soon after, the Sixers removed Iverson's nameplate from his locker and removed its contents. The countdown to the end of his career in Philadelphia was in full swing.

Cheeks, who had a close relationship with Iverson when he was an assistant coach for Larry Brown between 1994 and 2001, will not talk about what had happened between him and Iverson to result in the player's speedy ouster. He said the way things ended between them was "unfortunate."

"Let's put it that way," he said. "You don't like to see things go bad, but it's a coach-player relationship.

"I respect the guy a great deal. I have no hard feelings toward him. I wish him a lot of success except [tonight]. But I have no ill feelings against him at all. I still respect him as a player and a person. It's just that the player-coach relationship doesn't always go smoothly."

Iverson was not available for comment yesterday. Nuggets coach George Karl scheduled practice but called it off after strength and conditioning coach Steve Hess, challenged by the coach, sank a three-point shot, giving the players the day to themselves.

"We're in a situation right now that, games we can win, we've got to get," Karl said. "Philly is the kind of team that can beat you. But if we play like we've been playing, and, hopefully, make a few more shots, we should be able to get a win.

"[Iverson] knows both sides. I think he wants to play great. But I think he also understands that we can't break away from building what we've been building. He's a pro. He's going to be fine. If we can, we'll help him have a great game. If they triple-team him, we're going to have to find other ways to win the game."</div>

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