Sixers Replace King With Nets’ Stefanski

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 4 (AP) -- The 76ers fired general manager and team president Billy King on Tuesday and replaced him with New Jersey Nets general manager Ed Stefanski.

King, who had been with the franchise since June 1997, had said he was using this season as the start of a three-year rebuilding plan. The Sixers are 5-12 and in last place in the Atlantic Division. After reaching the NBA finals in 2001, Philadelphia has missed the postseason three of the last four years and King traded former MVP Allen Iverson to Denver last December.

"We have a good plan in place, but we needed a fresh approach in the leadership of the franchise,'' Sixers chairman Ed Snider said.

Stefanski served as New Jersey's general manager since 2004.

"He's been a big part of our success here the last seven years,'' Nets president Rod Thorn said. "He's a wonderful guy. Very competent. I'm sure he'll do a great job there.''

King, who was in the final year of his contract, did not immediately return a request for comment.

Even with the Sixers in last place in the Atlantic Division, the timing comes as a bit of a surprise. Snider had never publicly wavered in his support for King and let him make both the Iverson trade and select three first-round draft picks last June.

No decision was immediately announced on the status of coach Maurice Cheeks, who also is in the final year of his contract.

King tried everything from changing coaches, making blockbuster trades and signing players to overpriced contracts to transform the Sixers back among the elite, but nothing worked.

He gave Jim O'Brien a multiyear deal to coach in 2004, then fired him after a playoff appearance. A blockbuster trade that brought Chris Webber to Philadelphia backfired and the disgruntled former All-Star was bought out of his contract last year. They also haven't seen the desired results in their record as Samuel Dalembert, Kyle Korver and Willie Green have not lived up to the hefty contract extensions signed under King.

The Sixers failed to reach a contract extension with leading scorer Andre Iguodala before the season started.

King said in the preseason he wasn't concerned about his lame-duck status.

"I really don't worry about that because I have a job to do,'' King said. "You could have a multiyear contract and that doesn't mean anything in terms of job security. I just worry about the job I have to do. I know what our goal was, what our plan was to do and I think we're headed in that direction.''

King started with the 76ers as vice president of basketball administration in 1997 and was promoted to general manager less than a year later. He was named president in 2003.

The Sixers reached the Eastern Conference semifinals under coach Larry Brown in both 1998-99 and 1999-2000, lost to the Lakers in the finals in 2001 and made it five straight postseason berths in 2002-03.

They've been mired in mediocrity or near the bottom of the East ever since that five-year run. They lost 88-79 to the Atlanta Hawks on Monday night.

So they've turned to Stefanski, a Philadelphia native who played basketball at Penn, in the mid-1970s under future NBA coach Chuck Daly. Stefanski teamed with Rod Thorn to reshape the Nets and is known as a sharp talent evaluator who helped bring in Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson.

Stefanski also worked as the team's senior vice president for basketball operations for one year and director of scouting for four years. Before joining the Nets he was a college basketball color analyst for ESPN for 11 seasons.

Thorn said Tuesday he had assembled a list of candidates to replace Stefanski but didn't expect to make a decision for a few days.

source : NBA.com