Too good to be true?!?

The 76ers are a mess. They made the playoffs last year, but GM Ed Stefanski brought in a new coach -- the utterly immortal Eddie Jordan.

That resulted in backsliding by about 20 games, missing the playoffs and, worst of all, becoming the laughingstock of the NBA. Players quit on Jordan and quit on the city of Philadelphia. They had, perhaps, the worst attitude of any Philly sports team in the last 40 years.

Two weeks ago, Stefanski fired Jordan. (Who, amazingly enough, will collect $6 mill over the next two years.) Now, it appears that Stefanski will be the next one to get the boot. A report yesterday on yahoosports.com (they break more stories than the Evil Empire known as ESPN) stated that Prodigal Son Larry Brown will be returning to Philadelphia to run the basketball operations. (His wife and kids still live on Main Line.) "Brown is angling to take the Philadelphia 76ers’ presidency, and has targeted Washington Wizards front office executive Milt Newton as his general manager and the Atlanta Hawks’ Mike Woodson as coach, sources said."

It all makes sense. Brown, at the age of 70, could (finally) be ready to step back from coaching. Woodson was his first lieutenant when he coached the 76ers and has done a great job with the Atlanta Hawks. Milt Newton played for Brown when he coached Kansas to a National Championship over Mookie Blaylock and Stacy King of Oklahoma in 1988. Of course, there's no guarantee Woodson will leave a young and talented Hawks team in favor of the toxic waste now residing on Philly's roster. That would leave the door wide open for Brown to run the organization and coach the team.

That scenario sounds a heckuva lot better than what Stephen A. Smith wrote in today's Philadelphia Inquirer: "Brown would be running basketball operations for this franchise. And there would be no need for Stefanski because Brown will bring back former Sixers president and GM Billy King to make all of those phone calls for him. Just like old times."

We love Larry Brown. But we want no part of Billy King. His specialty was giving huge contracts to stiffs like Willie Green and Samuel Dalembert.

Our fingers are crossed that Yahoo, not Smith, is right.