Written by Bob Cooney at Philly.com
TO LONGTIME 76ers fans, it was a sight to see. Julius Erving graciously and, as always, eloquently speaking to the media when Allen Iverson joined the session and the two shared a couple of bearhugs before Doc planted a kiss on Iverson’s forehead.
It was a look into the past. Into what had been a great franchise on a night when the bridge from past to present continued to be constructed.
The team hosted the Sixers Youth Foundation gala Thursday night on the floor of the beloved Palestra, a charitable event with the proceeds benefiting area kids who are less fortunate. Current and former players, coaches, sponsors and fans got a chance to mingle and forget about what has been a wretched period of professional basketball. And they got a chance to remember what once was.
But, as is all things Sixers right now, a bit of bad news appeared to be on the horizon.
Although coach Brett Brown wouldn’t say exactly what is wrong with Jahlil Okafor’s right knee, a CT scan was taken early in the week. If the news were good, you would assume Brown would be eager to share it.
“It’s something serious enough for us to wait this long to try to figure it out,” Brown said. “He’s clearly that important to the program, and it’s just something that we don’t feel comfortable with making any decision right now on declaring something categoric to the marketplace. When we do, we will. Right now we are not in that position.
“We don’t know everything. When we don’t know everything, that’s enough for us to realize that we have to hold things right now close to our chest, so we can figure it out. I think (Friday), with the collaborative effort of everybody involved, we’ll be in a position to declare to the marketplace that this is what’s going on, this is what we intend to do, and this is the path that Jahlil will follow for a while, and off we go.”
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