<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">We had not heard these words from this man. "Regardless of who is on the roster, things are going to be done one way. It's going to be done one way, and it's going to be done my way," 76ers president Billy King said last night on his way from the NBA draft lottery in Secaucus, N.J., to Manhattan for a late dinner. Maybe the young executive has rounded into a veteran president. Maybe his perspective has changed through marriage and impending fatherhood. Or maybe King, like Sixers fans, finally has grown tired of all the petty infighting, jealousy, and childish behavior from members of the professional franchise he is supposed to lead. The trick will be putting the muscle behind the mouth. Coming off another fruitless season that resulted in the team's second lottery appearance in three years, King apparently is trying a new tack. He's going to play the heavy. He's going to set rules, and demand that his players follow them. Every player. Not 13. Not 14. All 15. Including Allen Iverson - if he isn't traded away this summer. As we all know, what is said in May is one thing. What happens in the NBA's dog days of January and February is something else altogether. King said he had decided things needed to change before that embarrassing Fan Appreciation Night episode last month in which Iverson and Chris Webber showed up just minutes before tip-off of the Sixers' final home game, which Iverson and Webber watched from a remote location far from the bench. King was appalled by the incident. It created an uproar from outraged patrons and brought into question who is running the organization - players or management? King knew. There had been too much leniency, too little focus, and too many questions about expectations. It was his fault. Only he, with the support of head coach Maurice Cheeks, could change things. "My mandate for myself is to change the culture of how we play, how we approach things," King said. "The players understand where we're coming from. I'm not going into saying I'm going to trade one player. I have to build something the right way... . Anybody who works for me will be on board for this or they won't work for me." This could be players' last chance to work for King in Philadelphia. Ed Snider is as loyal a boss as any high-level executive could want, but even he has limits. He has not told King to win or else, but no one expects King to be around for the 2007-08 season if '06-07 is not a success. So King will spend the summer trying to revamp a roster he created. The formula he will use, ironically enough given the New York Knicks' myriad problems this season, is the one Larry Brown used here several years ago: Build the team with hard-nosed, and not necessarily overpriced, players. Sign veteran role players. Demand defense, the kind in which guys dive on the floor for loose balls and dislocate fingers going for steals, and make turnovers to create easy buckets in transition. King concedes that since Brown left for Detroit after the 2002-03 season, he has guided the Sixers away from Brown's philosophy of defense first. "It's trying to get back to where guys have a sense of pride on the defensive end, where somebody scores on us and it hurts, not that we'll just make up for it and score on the other end," King said.</div> Source
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">"Regardless of who is on the roster, things are going to be done one way. It's going to be done one way, and it's going to be done my way," 76ers president Billy King said last night on his way from the NBA draft lottery in Secaucus, N.J., to Manhattan for a late dinner.</div> this can only spell trouble
