Change is coming

Change. It is something that every professional sports franchise experiences. Whether it is change in the offseason or mid-season, it is something pro athletes and coaches have to deal with.

There have been some major changes in the city of Philadelphia in the past week. The first of which was the re-signing of former 76er all-star Allen Iverson. The second was the firing of Flyers head coach John Stevens.

Let’s take a look at Iverson first. As I previously wrote, Iverson got a second chance from the organization that drafted him out of Georgetown in 1996. A.I., also known as the Answer, held an emotional press conference late last week as he began to cry said he “felt at home in Philadelphia.”

Plenty of emotion also flowed at the beginning of last night’s game against the Denver Nuggets, one of the three teams Iverson played for since leaving Philadelphia in 2006. Prior to the game A.I. danced on the Sixers logo at mid-court and bowed to the packed house all wearing No. 3. Iverson dropped 11 points.

Unfortunately for the 76ers, the Answer wasn’t enough as the Sixers fell to the Nuggets. That is the tenth straight loss for Philadelphia. Andre Iguodala showed that this slumping Sixers team was still his as he dropped 31 in the losing effort.

Now that the Sixers have their star back and they finally got some fans to attend a game, let’s take a look at another slumping team. The Flyers as I mentioned above, fired head coach John Stevens this past Friday. They immediately hired a replacement in Peter Laviolette. Laviolette led the Carolina Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup in 2006.

Under Stevens, the Flyers made it to the Conference Championship 2007 and 2008. Recently however, the Flyers had lost six of their last seven, two were shutouts. Since the replacement, many of the players took the blame for the firing. Danny Briere claimed that as a team needed to “play with more passion.”
That passion has yet to hit the Flyers as the team has dropped two in a row under their new head coach. In Laviolette debut the Flyers lost 8-2 to Washington and then again last night to Montreal with a final score of 3-1.

So far the changes that have been made over the past week have yet to have a positive outcome. Iverson says the Sixers will, “get it together.” What about the Flyers? One thing is sure for both teams, change is upon us. It is still pretty early in both seasons and there is a lot of improvement that needs to be done at Wachovia Center.