76ers “seriously considering” Allen Iverson

Allen Iverson’s retirement party looks like it will be ending very soon.  Fox Sports Radio extraordinaire Stephen A. Smith is reporting that numerous team sources confirmed on Friday that the 76ers’ brass has already talked — and talks will only escalate this weekend — about bringing Iverson back to Philadelphia. Possibly as early as next week.

“It’s being seriously considered,” one Sixers official said before his team lost to the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night. “We know the history. We know the ups and downs. But we’re also aware of what (Iverson) can do and that he’s needed here. We simply can’t just ignore the upside he’d bring. Not with our situation.”

Here at OTR, we understand basketball.  We’ve picked the NBA Champion eight out of the last nine seasons.  We are riding a five-game streak on March Madness.  And we were able to retire in our 30′s because of our NBA-NCAA winning percentage of 71 in Vegas.  Moreover, our opinion matters.

The 76ers are panicking.  They are off to a 5-11 start with new coach Eddie Jordan.  He has implemented a complex offense that takes some time for the players to learn.  It’s most commonly called the ‘Princeton’ offense.

“It takes a while,” said Washington’s Caron Butler, a two-time all-star under Jordan. “It took me like 40 games in it to get accustomed to the system.

If it takes a two-time all-star 40 games to ‘get accustomed,’ imagine how long it will take the scrubs on the 76ers to learn it.  Two full seasons?  On top of that, the Sixers are ranked 29th in league attendance, averaging 11,820 fans. Only the Memphis Grizzlies are worse.

So, what do you do when everything is going wrong?  You panick and sign Allen Iverson?  No, that’s a short-term fix to solve a long-term problem.  It’s no different than our government’s bailout plan.

I understand the 76ers have no promise, but why bring in Allen Iverson to stunt the growth of these young players for a couple more years?  They won’t get better with Allen on the team.  There’s no way Iverson will want to play the Princeton offense.  And when he retires again and leaves the 76ers for good, they are right back where they were…a horrible basketball team with no promise.

Furthermore, Iverson will most likely help the 76ers win a couple more games which will put them one or two slots behind a draft position that will help turn this franchise around.

OTR’s opinion, which matters, is don’t do it Philadelphia.  Don’t do it.  Especially, if it’s just for ticket sales.