Scary: Billy King wants to return !!!

Now relax, he wants to run ANOTHER TEAM…

We don’t have to worry, LOL.

Former Sixers GM talked to Mark Kram in a nice interview, and I would like to add some comments.

Overall he says some interesting things and at the end of the reading you have the impression he has matured, and he realized SOME of his mistakes, he is aware of them.

So I’ll give him some credit for that, at least he’s not acting like a complete jackass.

But, being the “politician” that he is, he doesn’t get much into a deeper analysis of his job as Sixers’ GM (trades, signings, relationship with coaches, players etc), admitting his (dozens of) boneheaded moves, and is more focusing about showcasing himself for a future job. Smart, uh?

The most interesting excerpts to me are:

(about giving the team to Randy “juicy face” Ayers, in the summer of 2003)

“I think it was unfair to give him Allen, Derrick Coleman and Glenn Robinson to coach,” King said. “I think a veteran coach would have had a hard time managing these three difficult personalities. So it was unfair to ask a rookie coach in the league to work with them.”

Who could have said it? LOL. By that time Paul Silas was available, coming off good seasons in Charlotte, just to name one. Instead, we got Juicy Face, a mediocre coach, that was put at the helm of a disfunctional team, and eventually fired. Ayers was replaced by Chris Ford (…).

And (about starting to entertain offers for Iverson):

“I had hoped that I could do what Indiana had done, when they had Reggie Miller as the elder statesman and surrounded him with young players,” King says. “But it became clear that that was not going to work.”

Again, pretty shocking… jeez.

Final gem (about dealing with Iverson):

“You have to do your job rather than try to keep your job,” says King, who found himself at odds with Iverson over his inability to show up for practice. “I was doing my job and there came a point where I was just trying to keep my job”.

(in the pic, King explaining Iverson how he is trying to keep his job)

Well, you managed to keep your job for a way too long time (ten years !! in different roles, but he was with the Sixers 1997-2007…), also considering your track record.

For a deeper research, and to know S4G’ opinion about King, start from this post.

Some team will probably hire King sooner of later, (over)valuing his “great experience” as a GM. It will be its problem.

Back to real basketball, Game 5 is tonight.