It's hours before a January NBA game between two ordinary teams. But there is something about the preparation - so precise, so necessary - that says plenty. It says something important is about to happen. And it is. The 76ers are about to play, and win, something they have been doing lately, and not by accident.
|
|
A collision of necessary basketball evils caused the misconception of what this 76ers season can be - a misconception that is resulting in empty seats and empty sections, but mostly in empty minds. Because Allen Iverson was traded, the popular belief was that the only way to real NBA redemption was for the Sixers to grow worse, not better. A deep draft beckoning, beginning with Greg Oden of Ohio State, many fans want the Sixers not to win games, but lottery tickets - to lose enough now to win a lot more later.
Missing from that warped logic is that it is OK to win now, and to win later, too. In fact, it is necessary. Winning begs for more winning. And until the Sixers ridded themselves of Iverson and the accompanying necessity to hand him the ball and move everyone else out of the way, that wasn't going to work. What was going to work were meaningful practices, scouting reports that were paid attention to, the development of lottery picks Andre Iguodala and Rodney Carney and the re-establishment of team basketball.
Once that began, the Sixers could add to it through fresh salary cap options, three first-round choices in the next draft and a more technically experienced head coach. But success begins with success, not with more failure. And that's what is making the Sixers worth watching and appreciating in recent days - not worth criticizing. They have won four of their last six, including one in Cleveland against LeBron James and the Cavaliers, and another over the defending champion Miami Heat.
And it has not been by accident.
They are playing basketball. They are a basketball team. They are running plays through to the final option. They are receiving production from multiple sources.
"There has been a conscious effort from everyone just to play solid team ball," Iguodala said the other night, after a 102-96 victory over the New Orleans Hornets. "We have 12, 14 guys on this team helping out, trying to get a win each night. And there is going to be different guys stepping up every night.
"It is just basic basketball - drive, kick, run the play all the way through. Because the plays will work if they are executed the right way."
The plays will work better with a major-league point guard, which is what the Sixers gained in Andre Miller in exchange for Iverson. He has this thing he likes to do during games, and it helps: He throws the darn basketball to whichever teammate happens to be open at the time. Imagine.
Now, there is a segment of the basketball fan base -- a segment, frankly, voting quite loudly by its absence at the Wachovia Center - that wants even more losing, and even more lottery ping-pong balls, and which has a fascination with Oden. (By the way, Oden hasn't made it through one year at Ohio State without being injured.)
"I don't pay too much mind to that talk," Iguodala said. "You just look forward to that when it comes."
When it comes - and it will, for Billy King is doomed to another ride to Secaucus for the lottery - it will matter only if the next lottery pick is added to a growing nucleus of players who have begun to learn to win. That's what the Sixers have a chance to do now. A cruel schedule, requiring them to play 22 of their first 33 on the road, threw them too far behind, too early. But they will play nine of their 11 February games and six of their first eight games in March at home.
By season's end, if they're not careful, they can be a good basketball team.
"We've been trying to play the same way, understanding that this season is a long way from over," Maurice Cheeks said. "I think guys are out on the floor playing together, trying to get better on the defensive end, which gives us a chance to win. These guys have hung together despite all the stuff that we've been through. We're just trying to play some good basketball and we'll just see what happens from there."
That's the play, even if it is too complex to be scribbled on a clubhouse message board: Practice. Share the ball. Run more pristine plays. Learn to win. And once that pattern is established, add into the mix the draft and free agency and become a real basketball program again.
Win now. It's the best way to win later too.
To contact Jack McCaffery, e-mail sports@delcotimes.com
