Overall, it is a great time to be a Philadelphia Sports Phanatic (Canada changed the spelling of center, so we definitely have the right to make changes as we see phit).

I don’t know about everyone else, but despite the baggage and poor reputation we receive (on what seems like a daily basis) from all across America, I’m honored to call myself a Philadelphia sports fan.  Could it get any better than this? It’s a very exciting time for our beautiful historic city, since things seem to be on the up and up on all fronts.  Please, take a moment to digest and let me explain.

Prior to 2008, we had the longest championship drought for a city with teams in all four major sports.  Consistently, year after year, the season would begin with the highest of expectations, proceed through the season with various levels of hope, just to be battered, beaten, bruised, kicked, punched, mollywhopped, and embarrassed come the post-season.

However, the optimist in me implores you to once again bestow your faith in the athletes we have come to love and hate simultaneously.  Let me break it down for you…

Phillies

I start with the Phillies because they are the obvious choice.  They snapped that grueling losing streak in 2008, made it back to the Fall Classic again in 2009 and are primed for another World Series run.  The recent acquisition of Roy Oswalt along with the team in general realizing, “Oh yeah! Winning is fun and we’re good at it” makes all sports fans in the city unite. This team is currently the cream of the crop. I dare you to find a neighbor without any Phillies “shwag” in their closet…ok so maybe ol’ Granny next door doesn’t count.

Flyers

After reaching the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1997, and winning a home game in that series which hasn’t happened since 1987, the Fly Guys are chomping at the bit for another chance to drink out of Lord Stanley’s over sized chalice.  GM Paul Holmgren is continually making moves to better his team and this off season is no different.  I have already secured my home opener ticket and am more excited than Crosby before a dance recital. Boom! Roasted.

Eagles

While the Eagles season may or may not experience the same success we’ve had in the past 7+ years, Kevin Kolb is looking to prove himself worthy.  A dynamic offense partnered with a grinding defense will make an entertaining team to watch.  It may not happen this year, but I am confident our birds will fly their way back to super bowl contention relatively soon.

Sixers

Well, this is the one dark spot.  However, the glass is half full.  With that being said, we can’t get much worse than last year.  Young star Evan Turner seems to be the type of player a team can be built around.  If we can get some players to step up alongside him (looking at you, Jrue Holiday), maybe we can kick the laughingstock tune which has recently developed into our reputation.

Special Shoutout

I am going to take this opportunity to give a warm welcome to the Philadelphia Union.  Soccer and the MLS is growing in the good ol’ US of A and Philly is doing its part to contribute.  As with any other expansion team, the Union struggled this season.  If nothing else though, the games are highly entertaining. The stadium illustrates an overwhelming caricature of blue and gold complete with a 90 minute soundtrack of chants and drums.  Even non-soccer fans will be able to enjoy themselves.

Final Thoughts

Convinced?  I thought so.  So come on kids…dust off your blue and red cap, pull up your orange and black socks, throw on your Kelly green jersey, (dribble a basketball?) and join me in celebrating the greatness, that is Philly sports.  Oh, and don’t forget to chant “Asshole!” accompanied by an arm wave at every Devils, Mets, Cowboy fan you see.

Willie Penn would be proud.

Maybe you also haven’t been paying attention to the Sixers for the past two seasons. If so, congratulations.

Things are looking up for your 76ers, with the drafting of Evan Turner last week, the hiring of Doug Collins and the addition through subtraction of trading Samuel “Don’t blame me” Dalembert, all of which has occurred in the last six weeks.

Unfortunately, Andre Iguodala ($12.3 mil for 2010-11), Elton Brand ($15.96 mil for 2010-11) and Ed Stefanski (the man who gave out those ludicrous contracts) are still here. For a team attempting to transition from underachieving and overpaid players to young and up-and-coming talent, these contracts are killers—especially when one’s mind starts to wonder towards what could have been for the Sixers in 2010 free agency.

The Top 11 free agents the Sixers will watch sign somewhere else

1A. LeBron James

1B. Dwyane Wade

2. Chris Bosh

3. Dirk Nowitzki

4. Amar’e Stoudemire

5. Joe Johnson

6. Paul Pierce

7. Carlos Boozer

8. David Lee

9. Ray Allen

10. John Salmons

If the Sixers’ brass had demonstrated any patience in the 2008 offseason, instead of signing Brand (which I’ll admit favoring at the time) and overpaying for Iguodala, a restricted free agent at the time, they could have been in a position to be right in the middle of negotiations with at least one of these players come tomorrow.

Instead, they’ll be sitting and watching with the rest of the world (as ESPN is characterizing the audience for King James’ decision) at midnight tonight when the free agent negotiation period officially kicks off. Or, more likely, they’ll be sleeping, knowing full well they have nothing better to do on perhaps the biggest day for the NBA in 2010.

The Sixers may not be going to the playoffs, having finished a mere 14 games out of the Eastern Conference’s eighth spot, but there is good news: Eddie Jordan was fired. Ed Stefanski may soon follow, and maybe the Sixers will be blessed with a GM/coach combination who actually know what they’re doing.

Dwyane Wade must’ve known something about the Sixers’—and Jordan’s—fate when his Heat hosted the Sixers last week. Wade sent Jordan off with a nice parting gift: Fashion advice surely influenced by Sir Charles Barkley himself.

Dwyane: Eddie, you’ve got a little something…

Eddie: Is it a noose?

Dwyane: Nah, man, just fixin’ your tie.

Who are the Sixers, you ask? I don’t think Ed Stefanski could even answer that. The Sixers have been a team struggling to find an identity all season. What’s worse is that the players have given up and the only thing emptier than their hearts are the empty Wachovia Center seats.

One can only hope that the players are throwing these games in hopes of securing a better lottery pick in the NBA draft (a la Boston Celtics). The only problem is, it may be too late for that. Currently tied with the sixth worst record (24-47) in the entire league, they will need to get in the bottom four to guarantee a top seven draft pick. That will mean tanking every remaining game on the schedule, which shouldn’t be too hard to pull off for them.

The future isn’t too bright for this team. Although young, the talent isn’t there to compete in the coming years. Many questions surround this franchise. Will Andre Iguodala remain with the organization? Will Eddie Jordan’s ineffective Princeton offense and terrible clear braces survive past this season? Will Sammy Dalembert get his trade or just take off for Haiti? Will Dei Lynam stop showing up for games and have a mental breakdown? Can they get a new freakin’ mascot? Maybe most importantly, will the Sixers EVER win again?

One thing is for certain, the younger players will start to log more minutes for the front office to evaluate what they are working with. I guess that’s something positive, right? For now, we’ll turn our attention to the replacement team in Philadelphia’s top four: Philadelphia Union.

Ok, maybe that’s a little harsh. Who are the Union, you ask? Our new MLS professional soccer team, duh. Check them out as they kick off their season this Thursday on ESPN.

Season Highlights:

Absolutely nothing worth mentioning.

Team MVP:

Nobody.

Back then, the matchup between Allen Iverson and Michael Jordan added quite a bit of flair to the Sixers-Bulls rivalry.

Now? The rivalry ain’t much. With attendance far below a simple “lacking”, the organization is pulling out all stops to lure fans to the Wachovia Center.

Saturday night when the Sixers host the Bulls, the Andre Iguodala figurine will be available to the first 5,000 kids under 12 years of age. Complete with over-sized arm muscles for added dunkability and no shoulders for nonexistent shooting accuracy (which coincidentally makes him a family-friendly action figure figurine), what person of any age could resist?

No doubt the Iguodala figurine in original packaging will be worth billions in a short time – so get yours now!

Better yet, Andre Iguodala and Samuel Dalembert could have been Houston Rockets.

Alas, Ed Stefanski declined a deal that would have gone a long way in helping the Sixers rebuild. McGrady’s expiring contract instead went to the New York Knicks at the trade deadline, and he was again prominently involved in the misery and despair of Sixers fans.

One would have thought the Sixers had the game in control at the half with an 11-point lead. This is the 2009-10 Philadelphia 76ers, though, whom even the LeBron James-obsessed Knicks can outscore by 21 points in the second half. That is exactly what happened Monday night, as a 55-44 halftime lead became a 94-84 loss.

Even with the same amount of points (14), the contrast between Iguodala and McGrady couldn’t have been greater. Though T-Mac is hardly in the prime of his career, he contributed 14 points to the Knicks in 25 minutes. More importantly, he made four out of five three-pointers. Iguodala was especially woeful from the field, missing all seven attempted threes and shooting less than 25% overall (5-22) in 43 minutes.

So long as he is not sucked into the 76ers’ pathetic culture, Jrue Holiday will be a star in the NBA. Holiday led the Sixers in scoring with 18 points, to go along with eight rebounds and six assists. Of course, it was not enough, but what can one really expect from a 19-year-old rookie?

Five straight losses. 10 in the last 11. The whole team—and its remaining fans—are waiting for what comes next.  A guillotine hangs from the Wachovia Center rafters above Eddie Jordan’s seat on the bench, and Ed Stefanski undoubtedly feels Ed Snider’s eyes burning through the back of his shiny pate.

Through 67 games the Sixers have 23 wins. The indescribably bad New Jersey Nets come to town Wednesday. With seven wins on the season, the Nets are on pace to tie the all-time record for fewest wins in a season, nine—set by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1972-73. The Sixers have a chance to help in erasing a franchise embarrassment by beating the Nets Wednesday.

Assuredly few. The dwindling number of newspaper subscribers affirms that, and Smith’s two-year-long absence from the sports section’s hallowed perch over contract issues was unbeknownst to most. People were indeed asking questions about his departure and subsequent drop from the face of media Earth.

For instance: “What happened to that loud fellow with the middle initial who used to write for the Inquirer?”

It’s been a long, strange road for Mr. Smith from his first stint with the Inquirer to the current one, his second. In between, and sometimes overlapping, he worked as an NBA analyst for ESPN and even had his own television show in the Jim Rome fashion. Quite frankly, it had to be one of the most ill-advised programming decisions in ESPN’s history, and thankfully the mistake was quickly rectified in its cancellation.

Smith has been back with the Inquirer since November, but his almost-daily columns have only appeared for a few weeks now, in classic Screamin’ fashion—minus the political overtones. The powers that be at the paper allowed Smith back only on the condition he leave his political tendencies out of his work. Hence, the new, only semi-controversial Stephen A. Smith.

Of course, Smith could not help but make himself the media mouthpiece on Allen Iverson’s downfall. The aforementioned column from Monday’s Inquirer painted an increasingly dire picture of Iverson’s present and future.

The article opens: “His closest confidant asked the basketball world to pray for Allen Iverson, as if no one has all these years while seeing this train wreck coming.” What follows is a tale of gambling and alcohol already having wrecked a marriage and played a role in the demise of a career.

It’s hard to disagree with Smith here. Basketball was the only thing providing a sense of stability to Iverson. Now that his career is all but officially over, it is frightening to ponder what may become of A.I. in the next five years.

Where “Middle Initial A.” errs is in his approach. Smith’s story put his name back on the tongues of sports pundits around the country. It was quoted, run, sourced, cited, paraphrased, and critiqued, all out of seeming concern for Iverson’s well-being, and Smith’s face popped up on various talk shows to lead the discussion on Iverson’s shattered state. The real idea, however, was to announce Stephen A. Smith, Part Two: Don’t Call It a Comeback.

Nothing Smith “reported” is urgently new. Iverson has dealt with these problems for years; or, more importantly, his teams have dealt with the aftermath of these problems for as many years as they’ve existed. They all played a part in his penchant for missing practice, his lack of off-court conditioning, and his repeatedly late arrivals before games. And now, as if we expected any differently, they appear to have run him out of the league—and robbed him of more.

Iverson has always been impulsive. It’s in his nature. Hardly anything seen from him is scripted, and that is how he has always done it. He’s been a self-promoter, but his best interests were hand-in-hand with the team’s in his best years because he was the best player. It was Allen Iverson, take it or leave it.

Smith, however, is out to make a name for himself. Again. The “intrepid” journalist is back with a vengeance, eager to regain the lofty status he once held across multiple media platforms—no matter what it takes.

Quite frankly, he didn’t need to bury Iverson to do it.

The Sixers traveled to Hotlanta Wednesday in hopes of avenging their pride and proving the coach wrong. Instead, they lost by 19, 112-93. Atlanta lead by 10 at halftime and 19 after the third quarter before the Sixers put an end to the Hawks’ domination and managed an even fourth quarter. Whoop-de-do.

Lou Williams scored a game-high 30 points, nearly a third of the Sixers total, but no other starter managed more than 11. Willie Green was the second-highest scorer with 17. Obviously, it was not enough.

Though Elton Brand did not make the trip to Atlanta because of an Achilles problem, the Sixers saw The Ghost of Free-Agent Blunders Past there, in the form of Hawks forward Josh Smith. The young, athletic, non-injury-prone Smith, in whom the Sixers were rumored to have interest in The Summer of Elton, only scored seven points on a bad shooting night, but contributed in other ways that Brand did not. With Smith on the floor, the Hawks were plus-18. With Brand in Philadelphia, the Sixers were minus-19.

Cheer up though, Sixers fans: This is a good thing. Each loss gets this team a better chance at NBA Draft Lottery success, and each absurd move by Jordan and GM Ed Stefanski further stokes the angry crowd demanding change.

We are talking about the Philadelphia 76ers, the franchise of Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving, Charles Barkley, and The Original Allen Iverson, not the Vancouver Memphis Grizzlies. What continues to happen to this team is a disgrace to Philadelphia basketball, and as Sonny Hill would be sure to point out, there are very few playground coaches and GMs in North Philly who could do worse.

Each loss puts Beavis and Butthead closer to the chopping block. While we hate to call for someone’s job in these economic times, at least we can say it wasn’t undeserved.

So keep losing, Andre Iguodala, Samuel Dalembert, and Lou Williams. Do it for your coach. Do it for your GM. And please, please, do it for the city that packs the Wachovia Center each game to pay your salary. It’s the least you can do to earn your millions.

Sixers’ Record: 22-38, 10th in the East.

22nd in the NBA, 16 games out of 25% chance to win NBA Draft Lottery. Currently: 1.7% chance.

In a season full of last-straws and repeated embarrassment to the history of the Philadelphia 76ers franchise, the loss to the Orlando Magic is the worst of them all.

It’s been mentioned the Sixers play down to bad teams and play up to good ones, but against the Magic and in the loss last week to the Los Angeles Lakers, both teams appeared to toy with the Sixers for the majority of the game, allowing them to keep it close only to turn it up at the end and win comfortably. Knowing this cast of players, they don’t realize this, and think they indeed are a team capable of rising to the occasion.

The news today is that Allen Iverson will not be back with the team this season. Amidst all the talk of his sick daughter, Iverson has been spotted partying up and down the East Coast, and (surprise) has become a distraction to the team. Unlike before, however, his talent does not far outweigh his negatives. This second divorce was inevitable.

Which divorce will come next is unknown, but all signs point to coach Eddie Jordan. A man no one wanted here in the first place outside of GM Ed Stefanski, Jordan has been a disaster with the Sixers, but is an ironically perfect coach for a team that doesn’t know how to play to its strengths.

Jordan called out the Sixers last night for lacking leadership. No, he wasn’t kidding. From Kate Fagan of the Inquirer:

“We just didn’t respond in a passionate way,” Jordan said. “We lost the passion to compete. We saw some poor body language, and there was a couple of time-outs [when] we addressed it. And I wasn’t going to have it. I addressed it a couple of times; I addressed it right now. It’s leadership or lack thereof. . . . One guy’s miserable, and it’s contagious throughout the team, and we just can’t have it.”

By default, Iguodala is the leader on this team, and like Jordan is the “perfect” coach, Iguodala is the “perfect” leader. He’s a good player on a talented team who insists on tailoring his game around his weaknesses rather than his strengths. Andre, please stop shooting threes. Bricklayers are having a hard enough time finding work as is.

Right now, the player with the most value on this team is Jrue Holiday. Give the Sixers GM credit for drafting Holiday; however, if Stefanski, Jordan and Co. are given long enough, they will be sure to drag Holiday into the abyss currently known as Philadelphia 76ers basketball.

Who thought we would miss Billy King and Maurice Cheeks this much?

No, they did not trade Andre Iguodala. No, not Samuel Dalembert.

Elton Brand is still with the team, Lou Williams is still the point guard, and Thad Young and Marreese Speights are still up-and-coming players on a mediocre-at-best team.

And, unfortunately, Ed Stefanski is still the GM and Eddie Jordan the coach.

But, hey, they got Jodie Meeks.

Forgive me for being cynical, but the post-trade deadline Sixers look too much like the pre-deadline team

It’s an organization in confrontation, with the message “Win Now” but the personnel unable to do so. Stefanski said he would only make a basketball move at the deadline, and that’s what he did in trading for Meeks. If reports are to be believed, the team had an offer on the table of Andre Iguodala and Samuel Dalembert for Tracy McGrady’s expiring contract and Chase Budinger, but refused to have their sins forgiven in order to be lifted out of salary-cap hell.

Jordan remains as the coach for a team pushing for a first-round playoff exit, another curious contradiction in the focus on winning. The Sixers coach has been painfully inept in just about every aspect of the game, and has mutilated the Princeton Offense to the point Pete Carril is rolling in his grave. More than halfway through the season, he has been unable to figure out a proper rotation for this team, either a telling sign of his or the players’ lack of skill—or both.

Currently seeded 10th, the team is 6.5 games out of the eighth playoff spot. 29 games remain in the season, so if the winning percentages remain true, the Sixers will have to go 21-8 over the rest of the season, a .724 winning percentage, just to get to .500. Anyone see that happening?

The only two games in the NBA last night featured four of the league’s premier teams: Celtics-Lakers and Nuggets-Cavaliers. Both were tight contests decided by a combined three points, and displayed the kind of basketball the Sixers are light years from playing and the quality of players the Sixers will never get in their current place.

Get a look at your post-deadline Sixers tonight at the Wachovia Center against Tim Duncan and the Spurs. Or, more likely, watch a few minutes while you’re flipping through channels. You won’t be witnessing anything changed.

A loss is one thing with the trade deadline a day away. This loss, however, could be the best thing that happened to the Sixers—if Ed Stefanski is smart.

There are no untouchables on this team; no player would be so sorely missed as to hinder the long-term development of the franchise. Despite the meager sum of their parts, talent does exist that contending teams are obviously interested in. Let’s take a look at who the Sixers could potentially ship off:

Andre Iguodala

Iggy has been the primary target of trade talk surrounding the Sixers for most of the last month. With rumored destinations including Phoenix, Cleveland and Houston, we’re all but offering to drive Iguodala straight through to any NBA city.

It’s not that Iguodala is a bad player; it’s that the Sixers are damned to NBA purgatory so long as he is their best player. Iguodala is a poor man’s LeBron James, except he cannot shoot. One requirement for being the go-to guy on a successful basketball team is to be able to score points consistently, and while Iguodala can drive to the basket and slam the ball, his jumper is ugly and far too inconsistent to carry a team beyond the .500 mark.

Iguodala has been mentioned in trades involving Tracy McGrady and Amar’e Stoudemire, mainly to get rid of his long-term, cap-killing contract, but if the team could get decent value in addition, one would hope the Sixers jump at the chance.

Samuel Dalembert

Sammy D has played well in the past couple months, playing within himself for seemingly the first time in his career. What that means is this may be the best time to trade him. With one year left on his contract after this season, he could attract plenty of interest in the summer, if not at the deadline.

The same teams said to have interest in Dalembert are also eyeing Iguodala. Houston is searching for a big man to replace Yao Ming on a team that is surprisingly contending, and Phoenix could also use Dalembert to replace Stoudemire if he is indeed traded.

Allen Iverson

If Iverson was interested in playing a limited role for a contender, he would have several suitors. Then again, if he was willing to come off the bench and play fewer minutes, he would not be on the Sixers in the first place.

Iverson returned to the lineup Tuesday after missing several games for personal reasons, but had just four points in over 26 minutes. It is unlikely he will be traded, but it would be nice to see Iverson get a chance at a title, and at least would bring the Sixers a draft pick.

Elton Brand

HA. Brand’s contract: three years, roughly $50 million remaining after this season. A veritable no-trade clause.

Everyone Else

The Sixers’ ability to trade Iguodala and/or Dalembert may hinge on their willingness to part with young talent—a resource far from plentiful in the organization. Thad Young, Marreese Speights and Jrue Holliday are whom constitute the potential of the Sixers, but it is known that Phoenix and Houston are hoping to get at least one of those players in addition to the hefty contracts mentioned above.

Stefanski’s unwillingness to trade anyone on the team basically for expiring contracts may be holding up any deal he has on the table. For whatever reason, though, the organization appears reluctant to trade any of their players. Apparently the goal is to make a push for the playoffs, an idea so ludicrous because of an all-but-guaranteed first-round exit.

The team may be in such poor financial straits that two blowout losses at the hands of LeBron and the Cavs is worth the revenue. And that, brother, is a sorry state indeed.

The former Sixers’ star and current M.I.A. role player has missed the Sixers’ last six games. Their record in those games? 5-1.

Iverson said all the right things when he came back to the Sixers, but in reality it was his only choice. He has always been one to pull at the heartstrings of those who have followed him throughout his career, and his apparent “last chance” in the NBA hinged on his ability to do that one final time, in that dramatic return press conference and the sold-out event the next night at the Wachovia Center.

Now, after 22 games, no one knows if we will see Iverson on the court again this season. His most recent absence is attributed to the illness of one of his children. While the man in us says not to suspect a father with a sick child, the cynic remembers that this indeed is Iverson, and we’ve heard these excuses before.

The shame of it all is it appeared we were getting an older, wiser A.I., one who was about the team and working to make his teammates better. It seemed he was fine with being a footnote instead of the lead guy—a sign of his long-time-coming maturation, and perhaps a development that would prolong his NBA career.

If we had seen that guy earlier, it is very likely he would be playing on one of the best team’s in the NBA instead of the middling Sixers. It is no secret that Iverson could be a key player on the Cavaliers or the Lakers if he focused on working within the system and ceding the offense’s focal point to Kobe or LeBron. A.I. has never been willing to do that, though, and his fate is his own.

In a way, Iverson has been the most stand-up athlete we’ve ever seen around here. There are the incidents of selfishness and A.I.-first mentality, but the man has never presented himself as someone he is not. Whether is was the rapping, practice, the rival jerseys or the player on the court, all of that was Iverson, no matter how aggravating it was.

We complain when Donovan McNabb attempts to act tough, or cool, or stylish, because we know it is all an act. Iverson at times may have been a freak show, but he was never an act. What we saw is what we got, and if we are witnessing the end of A.I., it will be on his own terms, as always.

For now, we wait. The NBA All-Star Game is Sunday night in Dallas, and while Iverson opted out as the Sixers’ lone representative, we wait to see if—or when—he will be back in a Sixers uniform.

Tuesday night’s blowout win over the Minnesota Timberwolves can hardly be considered a monumental achievement, but the Sixers’ 119-97 victory marked the team’s fifth win in as many games.

The Sixers had 73 points and a 22-point lead at the half, thanks in large part to 43 points in the second quarter. Andre Iguodala led the way with 24 points and six assists while Elton Brand chipped in with 21.

In past weeks Eddie Jordan has done a much better job with his rotation, working in Lou Williams and Thaddeus Young for significant minutes off the bench. Williams had 16 points and 7 assists in just 26 minutes, while Young had 15 points and 8 rebounds. Even Jason Smith got in on the action, with more points (9) than minutes played (8).

With the trade deadline a little more than a week away, this recent hot streak will do little to quell the rumors of significant trades hounding the Sixers’ players. There is no doubt trades exist that Ed Stefanski could make tonight, but to this point he has been reluctant to pull the trigger. The question is, Will this affect the organization’s perception of how good this team can actually be?

Most feel the best thing the Sixers can do for their long-term success is to trade as many big contracts as they can and let their young talent play because this group of players as stagnated. The previous two seasons saw the Sixers start out slow only to come together at the midway point and go on a run to make the playoffs. Granted, the team was 40-42 and 41-41 in those two seasons, respectively, and lost in the first round in each playoff appearance, but despite the popular belief around the city, Stefanski’s front office seems to feel this is not a team hitting its ceiling but one working to break through and mature.

The team certainly does have talent. For all the faults of Iguodala, Brand and Dalembert, all three players have a good deal of talent and have played at a high level in recent weeks. Jrue Holliday, though raw, has made us think twice about our initial feeling that the team should have drafted Ty Lawson. Marreese Speights has shown ability in limited minutes as well, while Williams has shown himself to be an adept scorer at times.

Then again, most teams in the NBA have talent, but only a few have transcendent stars like Kobe Bryant to build the right mix of players around. The Sixers lack that, and unless one of their current players evolves, they free up money to sign one in free agency (Hello, Dwyane Wade) or they stumble along one in the draft, expect to see them stuck in the league’s version of purgatory for a time to come.

At 20-31, the Sixers are only 4.5 games out of the eighth playoff spot. As pathetic as that is, enjoy the winning streak. It will only make the trade deadline more interesting.

A year later, when the 2002 NBA All-Star Game came to Philadelphia, the fans did not forget Kobe’s comment, showering him with boos when he was named the game’s MVP. Bryant later said he was hurt that his “hometown” fans would treat him so harshly, and the national media took their usual turns ripping the good Philly fans for their behavior towards a “loyal son” such as Bryant.

We bring up these memories because Kobe and the Lakers come to Philadelphia to embarrass play the Sixers tonight. Last time the two teams met was last season in Los Angeles, when the Sixers actually beat the Lakers thanks to an Andre Iguodala three at the buzzer.

This time around, the talk is still surrounding Iguodala, but for a different reason. The Sixers guard continually has been mentioned in trade rumors, as the team falls further out of contention and Iguodala continues to prove he cannot carry a team. A missed three at the buzzer in Wednesday’s loss to Milwaukee was another example of No. 9′s inability to step up when it counts.

The Sixers do have a habit of playing well against the NBA’s best, however, so Friday night’s contest could turn out to be a pleasant surprise for the fans, in what surely will be a sellout at the Wachovia Center—or it could further reinforce the notion that the team needs to be blown up and reconstructed.

Either way, we’ll be watching.

The most intriguing aspect of this season is not whether the team will make the playoffs, however. A postseason berth does nothing for the Sixers except trap them in mediocrity, leaving many fans rooting for them to lose as many games as possible in order to get a high draft pick. Instead of contending now, the primary interest will be whether the organization can rebuild the team by dismantling it.

Trade rumors are swirling around the Sixers, mainly involving their big-ticket players: i.e., those with hefty contracts. The Sixers have committed big dollars to Andre Iguodala, Samuel Dalembert and Elton Brand, in the hopes that the trio would make the team legitimate contenders in the East. Obviously they have not, and there is no reason to think they will do so in the near future.

Unfortunately, this is not a unique problem in the NBA. The league is riddled with mediocre players with long-term, expensive deals that make them impossible to move outside of the last year of their contracts. Many trades in the NBA are talent for cap-space, as contending teams acquire players to help down the stretch and bad teams take on expiring contracts to clear up cap space.

There may be a way out, however. Two big-name NBA players in the last years of their contracts are on the trading block: Tracy McGrady and Amar’e Stoudemire. McGrady, who played only six games with the Houston Rockets this season before being given a leave of absence by the team, is the highest-paid player in the NBA, while Phoenix is supposedly shopping Stoudemire rather than losing him in free agency. Both players have been linked to the Sixers, mainly as cap relief.

The Sixers have one of the lowest payrolls in the NBA, ranking 24th at just under $63 million, but Brand ($14.8 million), Iguodala ($12.2 million) and Dalembert ($11.4 million) combine for more than 60 percent of the team’s total salary. Both Iguodala and Dalembert have been mentioned in potential trades for McGrady and Stoudemire, but the Sixers would likely have to include some of their young talent to make a deal work.

It is paradoxical, but the only way for the Sixers to get better is to get worse. Iguodala and Dalembert would be useful players on a good team, but they have proven unable to carry teams as the top dogs. Until the Sixers realize they have to start from scratch with their long-term contracts, the organization will be mired in the NBA’s version of purgatory.