Chapter 14 A Life of Loyalty
In the 2003-2004 season, the Philadelphia 76ers only achieved a poor record of 33 wins and 49 losses, and missed the playoffs for two consecutive years, head coach Chris Ford resigned, Jem O'Brien took office, speaking of this O'Brien, the resume is also brilliant, but it has never had a good relationship with the team's management, when O'Brien coached the Boston Celtics, general manager Angie hoped that the team would be bad and strive for a good signing, O'Brien disagreed, the conflict intensified, and he was fired, Then he was favored by the management of the 76ers and took office in Philadelphia.
Although the team was shut out of the playoffs for the second year in a row, management wanted to fight again with their current hand, and they drafted All-around small forward Andre Iguodala from the University of Arizona with the ninth pick in the first round at their rookie conference in the summer, and sent Eric Snow, the main point guard of the past six years, to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the summer to get guard Kevin Ollie and forward Derrick Brown. Unfortunately, neither of these two new players has played at an effective level with the 76ers. In the middle of the season, the Saramento Kings had infighting, and the two stars Peja Stojakovic and Chris Webber were fighting for the boss position, and the team was restless, Philadelphia saw the opportunity and handed a paper deal to exchange potential forward Kenny Thomas and two dragons for Webber, Matt Barnes, and Mike Bradley, and Derrick Coleman sent the problem to Detroit almost for nothing, but after five games, Coleman retired due to injury. Eriksno now ranks sixth in franchise history with 2,965 assists and 10th in franchise history with 702 steals.
Chris Webber is known as the most gorgeous power forward in history, the basis of this compliment is Webber's passing ability that is not inferior to that of a point guard, don't think that this sentence adds much water, interested fans can search for Webber's passing highlights, have you ever seen those gorgeous passes of Ginobili? Those are the epitome of Weber's passing, Webber at his peak not only passed the ball well, but also had a good ability to play singles under the basket, and he had been pressing Duncan in the first few years before entering the league, and few people in the league could explode Duncan under the basket, O'Neal counted as one, Weber counted as one, and O'Neal's "simple and rough" style of play is different, Weber has countless offensive methods under the basket, and he can use the most appropriate way to solve every opponent, just like the big shark leaving the Lakers, Webber is also because he is a little older, Traded by the team, he averaged 21.3 points, 9.7 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game for the Kings this season, shooting 44.9% from the field, 37.9% from three-point range and 79.9% from the free throw line. Webber joined the 76ers, giving the 76ers the most powerful offensive ability on the inside, and his impact in the league is no less than that of the "Big Shark" in Miami in 2004.
This season is the last peak of the 76ers in the next ten years, with a record of 43 wins and 39 losses, Iverson averaged 30.7 points and 7.9 assists per game, Chris Webber is obviously not adaptable enough in the 76ers' system, but he can still contribute an average of 15.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 3.1 assists per game, you must know that he is 20+10+5+2+2 every year except for his rookie season, and last year's rookie, shooter Kyle Korver has taken a big step forward this season, He played the role of the team's starting No. 2 in the late season, averaging 12 points per game and shooting more than 40% from three-point range, and Sanuel Derem Porter, as the team's starting center, averaged 8+8 per game. Rookie Andre Iguodala played all 82 games in his rookie season, and all of them were starts. Averaged 9.0 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game, speaking of Iguodala's start, there is also a record, Iguodala played a total of 758 games in the first ten years of his career, every game was a start, never played as a substitute, even if he returned from injury, he returned to the court and was still a starter, until the 2014-2015 season, when he suddenly became a substitute, and he played a total of 77 games in the season, and the number of starts was 0! From starting 758 games in a row to suddenly coming off the bench in 77 games the following season, this small record is also unprecedented.
The Philadelphia 76ers, who entered the playoffs as the seventh in the East, the first opponent in the playoffs was coincidental, or the Detroit Pistons the year before last, and the 76ers did not play the Pistons' four King Kongs the year before last, last year Rasheed Wallace settled in Detroit, the five King Kong combined, all the way to the finals, defeated the luxurious "F4 Army", and won the finals, this team 76ers want to win? Just think about it, five games were played in the playoffs, four of which had a point difference of more than ten points, and the only one that did not exceed was won by the Pistons, and the 76ers won that game because of the role player Rodney Rodgers' free throw stunner to steal a victory, of course, this game can be played until the last moment or rely on Iverson to add attack attributes and assist attributes, and played a super high shooting rate of 15 of 26 shots in the whole game, slashing 37 points and 15 assists, Iverson played like this so that the team barely fought with the Pistons until the last momentFrom this point, it can be seen that there is a huge gap between the strength of the two teams, Iverson played the ultimate performance in these five games, averaging 31.2 points and 10.0 assists per game while also hitting 46.8% shooting, this shooting rate can almost be said to be the most efficient round of Iverson's career in the series, but still can't play, can't beat is can't beat, hard power is no longer on the same level at all.
2005-2006 season, Maurice Cheeks, is this name still familiar? Played for the 76ers from 1979 to 1989, is the 76ers' all-time assist leader, his No. 10 jersey, now hangs over the 76ers' home stadium in the Wajovia Center, this season, Cheeks replaced O'Brien as the new coach of the 76ers, O'Brien went to the Pacers, and was later fired because of his poor development of young player Roy Hibbert.
In the 2005 NBA Draft, Philadelphia picked up the treasure with the 15th pick in the second round, and he spent an entire season in Philadelphia as the sharpest knife on the 76ers' bench, Louis Williams, the 2014-2015 Sixth Man of the Season winner.
The 76ers haven't made much of a move on player trades this season, but the rise of role players has made the team very competitive. Iverson averaged 33 points and 7.4 assists per game, Chris Webber spent the last peak of his career in Philadelphia, averaging 20.2 points, 9.9 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game, Andre Iguodala became the team's third leading scorer, averaging 12.3 points, 5.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.6 steals per game, Kyle Korver shot 42.0% from three-point range this season and averaged 12 points per game. Only so that the opponent did not dare to recklessly wrap up Iverson, John Salmons and Samuel Delham Porter also had their own good performances, but unfortunately, when the team was competing for a playoff ticket, it lost to the Milwaukee Bucks, who were eighth in the East, by a slight disadvantage of 2 games, and were rejected from the playoffs.
The 2006-2007 season was another turning point for the team, Iverson was very dissatisfied with the team's gradual decline, as we all know, Iverson is a scrappy and passionate player, he does not allow himself to accept defeat after another, he did everything he can for the team, but the effort did not change the record, for this reason, Iverson calmly proposed a trade to the management of the 76ers, asking himself to be traded to a team with championship competitiveness.
The management of the 76ers also believes that the team's "Iverson era" has come to an end, since the team flashed in the 2001 Finals, the team has been in a period of degradation and slump, and it is a number of big-name players in a row that can't change the team's poor record, coupled with Iverson's growing age, considering all this, so they decided to end it all, push it off, and start over.
On December 20, 2007, the 76ers made a seismic trade that made the whole league look at it, and the 76ers traded Iverson to the Denver Nuggets in exchange for guard Andre Miller, center Joe Smith, and two 2007 first-round picks, the two sides officially parted peacefully, Iverson played a total of ten and a half seasons in Philadelphia, (the last half of the season is this season Iverson only played 15 games for the 76ers) eight times selected as an All-Star, best rookie, A regular season MVP (2000-2001 season) two All-Star Game MVP trophies, three steal kings, four scoring champions, many honors, but only missing a championship trophy, one of the most important, so Iverson dreams of the championship trophy, at present, Iverson is the Philadelphia 76ers team history scoring leader, a total of 19,931 points on behalf of the 76ers, 4,385 assists and 1,644 steals are ranked second in team history, 5,122 free throws in team history, With a total of 722 appearances, he ranks fourth in team history. When you think of Philadelphia No. 3, I think there is only one person in your mind, and that is the former son of Philadelphia - Alan Iverson.
In 2016, Iverson was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
After talking about Iverson, let's talk about the two chips that were traded, Andre Miller, who looks very much like the Chinese star Karen Mok, is a high-quality point guard above the league average, his style of play is simple and solid, rarely has any gorgeous dribbling performances, just do his job as a point guard, the top in the league in passing ability, the league assist king in the 2000-2001 season, the breakthrough and off-ball running after the cover is very powerful, he has the ability to shoot in the middle, and the impact under the basket is also very strong, He once scored 52 points in a single game, (Iverson's highest single-game scoring record was on February 12, 2005, when the 76ers won the Orlando Magic at home, in which he shot 17-of-36 from the field and 24-of-27 from the free-throw line, and finished with 60 points, 6 rebounds, 5 steals, 4 rebounds, 1 block and 3 turnovers.) On January 15, 2002, the 76ers played at home against the Houston Rockets, Iverson scored 58 points and 6 assists on 21-of-42 shooting, 60 points and 58 points, respectively, the two games with the highest and second highest scores in Iverson's career...... Miller's shortcomings are also very prominent, and that is that he is not capable of shooting three-pointers, and he was averaging 13.6 points and 9.1 assists per game in Denver before the trade took place.
Joe Smith needless to say, the 1995 No. 1 pick, who briefly played for the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1997-1998 season, averaged only 5 points and 3 rebounds per game in the Nuggets in the new season, and it was completely a salary increase in this deal, it is obvious that in terms of ability, Iverson and Miller are not equal, and the real purpose of the 76ers is those two first-round picks in 2007.
Who will be the rookies in 2007? Known as a once-in-a-50-year basketball genius, O'Neal's successor, Greg Oden! The best scorer in the NCAA, Kevin Durant! Al Horford, the main center who led the college team Ohio University Buckeyes to a back-to-back NCAA championship! NCAA No. 1 point guard Mike Conley! NCAA Blocking Maniac Joakim Noah! College Rookie of the Year Jeff Green! Of course, in that year's draft, there was also Yi Jianlian, a big forward from China with amazing physical fitness! At that time, it seemed that everyone in this would become the soul of the team, but unfortunately, none of these people got any of the 76ers in the end, so just think about it, YY.
On January 12, 2007, the 76ers officially bought out Chris Webb, who then joined Detroit as a free agent, and the once-expected Ivey group officially parted ways. Andre Iguodala has become the new leader of the team, his stats have skyrocketed this season, averaging 18.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 2.0 steals per game, the 76ers in the rebuilding era have only won 35 games this season, and once again missed the playoffs, the 76ers' management has a clear goal, which is to get as many picks as possible in the draft so that they can select better players, but then what?