Le Basketbawl

It has reached epidemic proportions as it is cutting with a wide swath throughout the Association. On Saturday it reached the “City Of Brotherly Love” leaving yet another victim in it’s wake! The “Associated Press” reported Saturday that the Philadelphia 76ers fired head coach Maurice Cheeks Saturday after the team starting the season with a disappointing record of 9-14.

The Sixers had lost 8 out of their last 10 games including to the Cleveland Cavaliers Friday night. Philadelphia has named Assistant General Maneger Tony DiLeo as interim head coach. Sixers Team President Ed Stefanski told reporters that the reason for the dismissal was “I felt we were not progressing the way we had wanted to progress. I didn’t feel on the floor we were executing the philosophy we wanted to have as Sixers basketball.”

Cheeks who was the point guard on the 1983 Philadelphia team that won the NBA Finals, was the fifth coach that has been fired in the Association this season. In many ways, it may have been the least surprising. The 76ers gave the Detroit Pistons all they could handle last Spring in the first round of the NBA Playoffs before eventually losing. This Summer they signed former Clippers power forward Elton Brand, which immediately raised expectations that Philadelphia would be among the top teams in the Eastern Conference.

 Cheeks in three-plus season as coach of the Sixers had a record of 122-147. DiLeo has been with the team for 19 years and had been named Vice President/Assistant General Manager in 2003. There has been no word in how long he will remain on the bench.