Looks like Larry Brown, who took the Sixers to the finals in 2001, might be going back to Philly after the departure of Allen Iverson.

Allen Iverson was nearly shipped to the Charlotte Bobcats but his unhappiness at joining the newest National Basketball Association team reportedly doomed the deal.

Charlotte was one of the few clubs that could fit Iverson's contract into their salary cap. The Hornets spend 38 million dollars in salaries, about 15 million dollars shy of the NBA's cap of 53.1 million dollars a team.

Players who likely would have joined the 76ers would have contracts that expire within 18 months, meeting Philadelphia's needs.

Sixers picked lucky number 13 in this year's draft, right where their wretched season said they should be, surprising no one. GM Billy King has mentioned "Rebuilding" the sixers. After this season's implosion, there are only two directions King can go - either retool around Iverson or rebuild without him.

The Sixers will have no one but themselves to blame if they don't get into the playoffs.

They entered Saturday's game at Orlando one game behind the Chicago Bulls for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

They dropped to 37-42 after the 104-85 blowout loss at Miami on Friday night, but if they had taken care of business and won the games they should've won, especially the ones they had in their back pockets, they would've easily cruised into the playoffs.

Here's a look at 10 games they should've won:

Allen Iverson scored 39 points and the slumping 76ers beat Chicago 89-75 on Saturday night to tie the Bulls for eighth place in the Eastern Conference.

That snapped the Sixers' three-game losing streak and gave them a four-game split with the Bulls. Chicago currently owns the next tiebreaker, better conference winning percentage, if the teams finish in a two-way tie.

"If we lost this one, it's almost a wrap," said Andre Iguodala, who had 10 points and seven rebounds.

Snubbed by Team USA, Allen Iverson celebrated his third NBA Player of the Week award of the season on Monday.

The four-time scoring champion of the Philadelphia 76ers averaged a league-high 37.3 points on 56 percent shooting and 9.3 assists in four games to earn Eastern Conference honors.

The award comes one day after Iverson learned he will not have a chance to compete for a spot on the United States team that will play in the 2006 FIBA World Championships and 2008 Olympics.

Allen Iverson had 33 points and nine assists, but couldn't lead the Sixers to their third straight victory.

Jackson's layup with 2.9 seconds left lifted the Indiana Pacers to a 94-93 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday.

"For that to happen with 4.9 seconds left, it's devastating," Iverson said.

Iverson has scored 120 points and dished out 31 assists in three games since he was snubbed for the U.S. national team. He reached 40 points and 10 assists in consecutive games for the first time in his 10-year career, but fell short of doing it again.

Allen Iverson has scored 87 points and dished out 22 assists in the two games since he was snubbed for the United States' national team.

Coincidence? Iverson says yes.

Iverson had 47 points and 12 assists to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to a 119-113 victory over the Washington Wizards on Friday night.

Allen Iverson was challenged by coach Maurice Cheeks during the All-Star break to become more of a leader on the court, share the ball and take over when needed.

It looks like the former MVP not only listened, but is interested in following through on the plan.

"We tried it different ways in the first half of the season and now we just have to do it the way Mo Cheeks wants it done every night," Iverson said.

Iverson scored 14 of his 38 points in the fourth quarter, Andre Iguodala had 20 and Kyle Korver 19 to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to their third straight win, 108-102 over the Chicago Bulls on Saturday night.

Allen Iverson went back to breaking his opponents ankles.

Iverson scored 34 points with nine assists in his return to the starting lineup and did what he almost always does against Cleveland, leading the Philadelphia 76ers over the Cavaliers 100-95 on Saturday night.

"I was like a kid in a candy store," said Iverson, who added five rebounds, four steals and made all 14 free throws in 46 minutes. "It felt like the first game of the season because I was excited to be back."

New video posted here

With the Philadelphia 76ers trailing by 19 points late in the third quarter, Allen Iverson made a promise to his teammates during a timeout.

"I promised them that if we got it under 10, we'd win the game," he said.

Iverson kept his word when Andre Iguodala's follow of Chris Webber's missed layup narrowly beat the buzzer, lifting the 76ers over the Minnesota Timberwolves 86-84 on Sunday.

"It was one I'll never forget," Iverson said.

In other news, Kobe Bryant made history by scoring 81 points!!! That's second only to Wilt's 100-point game. I never thought I hear someone scoring 81 points in this day and age. Kobe's PPG jumped 1 point and distances himself ahead of AI.

Maybe it was the players-only paintball outing. Or maybe the earful the 76ers received from coach Maurice Cheeks got their attention. Possibly, it was the 2 1/2 hour practices.

Whatever the reason, Philadelphia's woeful defense was wonderful against Memphis.

Allen Iverson hit the tying jumper with 3.2 seconds left in regulation and scored 30 points to lift the Philadelphia 76ers to an 89-86 overtime victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night.

Back from a two-game suspension, Bryant made all seven of his 3-point shots and scored 48 points Friday night in a 119-93 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers.

He moved a fraction ahead of the 76ers' Allen Iverson, who had 31 points, in the NBA scoring race. Bryant raised his average to 33.166 a game to Iverson's 33.090.

Iverson has four scoring titles and no NBA championship rings. Bryant has no scoring titles and three rings. "I'd trade all of 'em for one of his rings," Iverson said. "People think I care about something like scoring titles because of the way I compete and the way I score night in and night out. I don't want to just be a scorer. I want to be a winner."

Phoenix is not a good place for a worn-out team to play. The road-weary Philadelphia 76ers found that out in a 105-85 loss to the fast-paced Suns on Wednesday night.

Sixers are 16-16, 2nd Atlantic

Allen Iverson nearly pulled a Kobe Bryant on Friday. Iverson scored 53 points, the fifth-highest total of his career, but Joe Johnson had 24 to lead the Hawks over the Philadelphia 76ers 111-108 on Friday night.

"I'm as disappointed as everybody else on my team," Iverson said. "We wanted to go into the holidays with a win. We'll have to get this one out of our system and come back to work."

Kobe Bryant had a career-high 62 points earlier in the week (but also had 0 assists). Iverson also pulled down 6 rebs and 5 asts.

He broke the record that Shareef Abdur-Rahim set at 7-year-old Philips Arena with a 50-point performance against Detroit on Nov. 23, 2001. Iverson has scored 50 in nine games, including a career-best 60-point effort in a 112-99 win over Orlando last Feb. 12.

Allen Iverson was already feeling ill before playing Atlanta. Watching the lowly Hawks nearly win their third straight made it even worse.

"We're making it real tough on ourselves," Iverson said, who played through flu-like symptoms. "The positive part is we got the win. That's the ultimate goal, but we've got to finish games a lot better than we've been doing."

Iverson scored 39 points, Chris Webber had 29 and the Philadelphia 76ers held off another spirited effort from the Atlanta Hawks (who had just beat the Defending World Champ Spurs) in a 106-101 victory on Wednesday night.

On a night when AI was shooting cold, Chris Webber picked it up and had one of his best games ever. Webber had 27 points and 21 rebounds, and Iverson added 19 points and 10 assists to help the Philadelphia 76ers win their third straight game, 90-89 in overtime over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night.

It just shows how valuable having an all-star like Chris Webber is. In the past, when AI was having an off night, there was no option B. Now, Sixers are a more complete team than ever.

Sorry for the lack of updates...it was exam time :-p

Sixers have been a mediocre team at best, going 0-4 before coming back with 2 wins. They're still 1st place in a crappy division, but haven't shown they could hang with the best yet

AI's play has been nothing but stellar. He's been dropping 34, 37, 43, 42 pts a game and leading the L in scoring (34.1). So far, it's been one of his best seasons yet (out of all his 10 season, see 10 years of AI) It just shows you how much he's flourishing under Coach Mo Cheeks. But the Sixers' biggest problem is Defense. Sixers are 3rd in Points Against them (102.7) and seem to lose their leads in game easily. Their wins usually come with outscoring their opponents. It's fun to watch, but in the end it's defense that wins games (eg. Pistons, Spurs) It's quite contrast of the Sixers back in '01 under Coach Larry Brown. The Sixers were the top defensive team in the East, and teams would fear playing Philly because of their stingy defense.

Sixers are still 1st in the weak Atlantic Division, but have yet to show they can compete with some tougher competition. Let's see if they can get into their championship form as the season continues

Allen Iverson had another amazing performance, with 40 points, 9 assists, but it was their lack of defense that lost the game, Boston 110, Philadelphia 103.

"In the past we have had trouble scoring and we were a good defensive team," Iverson said. "This year is totally the opposite and we can't stop anybody."

Chris Webber had 28 points for Philadelphia, loser of four straight on the road and five of seven overall.

Iverson gave another stellar performance at the famous Madison Square Garden, with 40 points and 10 assists, but it was 5-9 Nate Robinson who played the hero with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer that lifted the Knicks to a 105-102 overtime victory over the 76ers on Saturday. It was another case where the Sixers gave away their lead from poor defending and rebounding.

Sixers bounced back with an easy victory over Mo Cheek's former team. Iverson scored 38 points and Chris Webber had 16 points and 15 rebounds, leading the Sixers over the Portland Trail Blazers 107-83 on Tuesday night. "Scoring is not our problem," Iverson said. "We have to work on other areas, rebounding and defense."

Allen Iverson's latest brilliant performance wasn't enough to get Philadelphia a victory, as Bucks beat the 76ers 108-97

Iverson scored an NBA season-high 45 points, his sixth straight game with 30 or more points against Milwaukee, and it came two nights after he sat out the fourth quarter of a victory over New Orleans because of flu-like symptoms.

"I didn't feel well at all," Iverson said. "I didn't even know I was going to play until after warmups. After warmups, I was kind of light headed, but I just gave it a shot."

Iverson didn't get much help from his teammates, C-Webb had 11 pts and 11 boards. Also, the Sixers have terrible defense, as they are 2nd in points against them, averaging 105.0 points against.

Sixers lost a close game against Lebron and the Cavs, despite double-doubles from AI and C-Web. AI had 37 points and 12 assists, C-Webb had 26 points and 11 rebounds. But it was the Lebron show (who had a triple-double), as Cavs beat Sixers 123-120.

Sixers ended their losing streak by beating the Hornets 103-91. Playing with flulike symptoms, Iverson scored all 24 of his points in the first half and then happily sat out the fourth quarter. "I didn't feel good at shootaround," said Iverson, who told coach Maurice Cheeks he was ailing as he prepared to go back in for the fourth period. "He just told me to come back, and fortunately everything worked out fine."

Get well soon AI

With NBA scoring leader Allen Iverson in town, Dwyane Wade rose to the challenge.

The high-flying Wade had a season-high six dunks, came within a rebound of a triple-double and scored a season-high 32 points Friday night to help the Miami Heat beat Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers 106-96.

Iverson played 48 minutes and scored 33 points but took only nine shots in the second half. Chris Webber had 21 points and 10 rebounds for the 76ers, who lost for the first time since starting the season 0-3.

The Sixers are on a tear. Taking advantage of back-to-back games against the winless Raptors, the Sixers are now 6-0 since their 0-3 start that's long been forgotten.

In the first game, Iverson and Webber showed what a deadly duo they can be. Iverson scored 34 points and added 12 assists, Webber had 28 points and 16 rebounds as the Sixers beat the Raptors at home 104-92

In the second game, the two AI's dominated. Allen Iverson scored a season-high 42 points and Iguodala added a career-high 26 to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to their sixth straight win, 121-115 over the Raptors. Iguodala also had 10 rebounds and shot 6-for-8 from 3-point range for the Sixers

Iverson kidded Iguodala about his 3-point shooting by asking if he had "Korver on his shirt."

Allen Iverson had 28 points and 10 assists, and Nailon added 21 points to help the 76ers win their fourth straight game, 113-108 over the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday night.

After a three-game losing streak to open the season, the Sixers are in first place in the underwhelming Atlantic Division. With their next two games a home-and-home against winless Toronto, Philadelphia doesn't want to waste its chance to start a nice early-season roll.

Allen Iverson made the most of the wide-open look Andre Iguodala never gave Kobe Bryant.

Iverson outplayed Bryant in an anticipated matchup of the league's leading scorers, scoring 34 points and sinking the winner with 22.2 seconds left to lead the 76ers to an 85-81 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night.

All it took for the Philadelphia 76ers to play well was for everyone to get involved. Allen Iverson scored 25 points and keyed a decisive 15-0 run to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to a 112-97 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night. Andre Iguodala scored 22 points, Kyle Korver 20 and Chris Webber had 19 points and 11 rebounds for the Sixers, who opened a season-long four-game homestand with their first home win.

Sixers started the season terribly, losing 3 games straight to Bucks, Pistons, and (shockingly) Bobcats. Iverson and Webber seemed to click, but no one else did (eg. ice-cold Korver). But Finally, playing their 4th game in 5 nights, they secured Mo Cheek's first win as a Philly coach by beating the Pacers (who were previously unbeaten) 111-109. Iverson grabbed a Double-Double with 29 points and 12 assists.