Sixers Don’t Show Up For 81st Time This Season; Fans Finally Notice

If the fans at the Wachovia Center hadn’t traded their guns for 76ers tickets, surely there was a chance shots could have been fired at last night’s game.

The Sixers — already eliminated from the playoffs — beat the Nets last night, but Allen Iverson and Chris Webber didn’t play, and they didn’t even show up until just before tip-off.

Predictably, this angered the fans — it was fan appreciation night, after all — and the local papers and TV stations are all over it, but what made anyone think the Sixers were going to show up at all, anyway? The 101 points per game they’ve given up this year? The stellar play of John Salmons? Their play down the stretch, where they lost 15 of 22 games coming into last night, including a 33-point loss to Cleveland? Oh, but they did win back-to-back games against the mighty Knicks!

Allen Iverson might have had his best season and the team still will finish with a losing record. Andre Iguodala may have regressed this year, but at least he was second in the dunk contest! (Ooh, and he was MVP of the Rookie-Sophomore Game, too.)

Sure, Iverson and Webber should have showed up to the game on time. The 76ers could have said that the pair weren’t playing to be fair to the fans. Iverson’s been pretty much allowed to do whatever he’s wanted to since he was drafted by the 76ers. What do you expect? Oh, yeah, and guns and pot were allegedly found in an Iverson-owned car, too. But, as we all know, no NBA players smoke marijuana. (Joking aside, it doesn’t seem like the stuff in the car has anything to do with Iverson.)

The 2001 trip to the finals is pretty much all forgotten now. I don’t know what the 76ers should do in the offseason, but it seems like they’re going to have to trade one of their star players. Is it Iverson’s time to go? All I know is, the last time the team traded a superstar — no, not Shawn Bradley — it didn’t quite work out all that well.

Last night’s game could have been worse. The Phillies once sat Scott Rolen on Scott Rolen T-Shirt Day. Now that’s how you alienate a fanbase. You have a long way to go to reach that level of incompetence, Sixers.

Gone, but not forgotten [Daily News]
Guns & pot found in car owned by Iverson [Daily News]