Farewell
to the King

Off the Dribble
By Ryan Smith

Basketball fans throughout the Delaware Valley should be rejoicing that Comcast Spectacor — namely Ed Snider and his protégé Peter Luukko — finally decided to pull the plug on the Billy King era, ushering in a Philadelphia basketball native to take over as the 76ers’ team president and general manager.
Unfortunately, the decision was made about two years too late.
In what was strange timing, the organization fired King, who served as president and GM for the past five seasons, and hired former New Jersey Nets GM Ed Stefanski, a Wayne, Pa., resident, on Dec. 4 — just 17 games into the 2007-08 season.
The timing is strange because Snider and Luukko allowed King to begin the franchise’s rebuilding process last season when he cut ties with Allen Iverson and Chris Webber, and then continued to keep him on as GM through the past offseason and into the start of this season.
"On a personal level, it was a difficult decision because Billy King is a good friend who did a good job for our organization," said Snider. "But it’s a decision that is best for the long-term interests of our team. We have a plan in place that will pay dividends for the Sixers, but we are convinced that it was time for a new hand at the wheel as we head into the next phase of our rebuilding effort."
"Rebuilding effort" are the key words in Mr. Snyder’s quote.
Do these folks even know how to rebuild a basketball team? Did the Sixers’ brass really believe that the team, as constituted today, would be competitive?
If the team had started out with a 12-5 record, as opposed to its actual 5-12 start, would King still have a job?
I say yes, he’d still be employed. And that is a scary proposition.
Billy King should have been gone long ago, and if it took a 5-12 start in a season that was essentially over before it began to get him fired, the Sixers are in trouble.
It means that Snider and Luukko are clueless when it comes to making basketball decisions.
Don’t get me wrong, they may have picked the right guy as King’s replacement. Between 2000 and 2007, under Stefanski’s guidance — working either as director of scouting or GM — the Nets drafted Kenyon Martin; pulled off a three-for-one draft-night trade that enabled the Nets to acquire perennial starters Richard Jefferson and Jason Collins; drafted Yugoslavian phenom Nenad Krstic; and shaped a transaction that brought superstar Vince Carter to the Nets.
It’s just disturbing that it took the Sixers so long to make this type of move.
Now Stefanski must come along midway through a rebuilding process that he wasn’t around to start. But that doesn’t seem to be hampering the enthusiasm of the 1976 Penn grad.
"This is a dream come true for me," Stefanski said, "having the chance to come home and run the Sixers. I grew up here, played and coached here, and I live here. It’s a great opportunity to lead my hometown team, a team that I believe has a great future."
However, being a hometown boy does not mean the fans will be any less vicious if the Sixers continue to fail. (Ask Jim O’Brien.)
So Luukko, who has been instrumental in the recent turnaround of the Flyers organization, is staking his reputation on the new hire.
"Ed Stefanski has built a great reputation throughout the NBA as a skilled basketball executive and a great evaluator of talent," said Luukko. "One of the major reasons that we made this decision was the opportunity to bring in someone who is so accomplished to run our team. As we continue to build the Sixers, we will rely heavily on Ed’s experience and knowledge of the free-agent market, and the upcoming draft."
Let’s just hope the new GM also has the "experience and knowledge" to play catch-up on a job that he or someone else should have started years ago. ••