As the Sixers continue the ups-and downs of an inconsistent season, Larry Brown may be contemplating getting off the ride. Bernard Fernandez of the Philadelphia Daily News reports that Brown talked about finding a replacement to lead his team after a disappointing 97-83 loss to the Atlanta Hawks in front of the home fans.

One night after blowing out the Bucks in Milwaukee, they were dominated by the Hawks in Philly. Brown doesn?t understand the inconsistency.

"I hope some of the guys we've gotten will improve," Brown said. "If not...I don't know where we are. Maybe we get somebody in here at my position that can do a better job. I don't know. I think the way this league is, that's the way it goes."

Brown is a well-documented wanderer, but his six years in Philadelphia is the longest of his NBA coaching career. His players have heard him talk about stepping down before, but it might be more serious this time.

Allen Iverson, who scored a game-high 37 points, said he hoped Brown was just venting after one of the team's tougher, more unfathomable losses. "I just hope it's coach being coach," he said. "I can't tell you what he's thinking. I can't say what's going on in his head."

Eric Snow, who tied a career high with 15 assists, is also frustrated with the Sixers? woes. "Everything we did against Milwaukee, we didn't do tonight," Snow said. "That's why you get beat the way we got beat. We've talked about this I don't know how long. We know what we have to do, and we're obviously not doing it. The organization has to decide if this team is good enough to win. If not, they have to make changes."

Brown clearly misses character guys like George Lynch and Tyrone Hill, who willed themselves to give their best for every minute of every game during the more halcyon days of the Brown regime. "We got a lot of new guys who are different than we had before," Brown said. "I think their mentality's different. George Lynch, Tyrone...people like that wouldn't let this happen. Maybe we'd have lost, but it wouldn't be this way."

Asked whether the Sixers were "schizophrenic," Brown said: "Maybe. I watched 'A Beautiful Mind' before the game. I wanted to see Marilyn Monroe, and Phyllis Diller was out there."

In a related story, Stephen A. Smith of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Brown is unhappy with the makeup of his team and is looking to make changes.

The prevailing rumor has them sending Derrick Coleman and his ending contract to Atlanta for ex-sixers/defensive stopper Theo Ratliff. Brown misses the hustle and defense of his 2001 Finals team and bringing Ratliff back would improve their interior defense immensely.

Before the Atlanta trade talks, they talked to the Knicks about trading Keith Van Horn for Latrell Sprewell. Before that, it was Van Horn to Orlando for injured Grant Hill, months after vowing that Van Horn was the answer to their prayers.

Heat coach Pat Riley is frustrated with the officiating in the NBA and he repeated his criticism of what he feels is a bias against his team yesterday. Harvey Fialkov of the Sun-Sentinel reports that Riley labeled the officiating during Monday?s loss to the Pacers as "absolutely one-sided".

Riley said that his team drove hard to the basket 32 times to Indiana's 19, yet the Heat finished 18 of 23 from the line to the Pacers' 26 of 39, including a 16-7 attempts edge in the fourth quarter. His Miami team is 27th in the league in free throws attempted, ahead of only the Sonics and the Knicks.

"We can't overcome the inconsistencies of those calls when the games are equal," Riley said. "Both styles are equal, so it's perplexing for me. I can stand here and complain about it, but unless the officials make a consistent effort to call the game collectively or equally, we'll be on the short end of the stick."

After Miami?s loss to the Sixers on Saturday in which Philadelphia out-shot the Heat from the line by a 35-17 margin, Riley only smiled and said, "I'll tell you one thing, Caron Butler was fouled just as many times as Allen Iverson."

In both games, which were lost in the fourth quarter, Indiana and Philadelphia combined to take 74 free throws to the Heat's 40. "We can't win that way," Riley said. "I'm not saying we don't deserve it. We deserve the calls and last night's whistle was one-sided, absolutely one-sided."

Riley was fined $50,000 in December when he criticized the officiating and referee Steve Javie in particular. "It's giving us absolute delight to watch you and your team die," Riley said were Javie's words during a disagreement.

Williams missed the first 18 games of the season after undergoing arthroscopic surgery Oct. 25 to repair a tear in the medial meniscus suffered in a preseason game in Houston. He already had sat out the first four preseason games with a small labral tear in his left shoulder.

He was activated Dec. 3, but suffered a bone bruise on his left knee Dec. 11 in a game against Seattle.

The Associated Press reports that Stanley Roberts has been reinstated by the NBA three years after being banned for illegal drug use. A month after signing with the Philadelphia 76ers in October of 1999, Roberts was banned by the league for violating the league?s drug policy.

He tested positive for what the league said was an "amphetamine-based designer drug." He denied taking the drug.

The seven foot, 300 pound ex-LSU star was signed by the Sixers to a $725,000, one-year contract before the 99-00 season. The Sixers now hold his rights and have one month to decide whether they want to re-sign him to a rest-of-season contract or not. If they pass on him, he is free to sign with any team.

Roberts was drafted in the first round of the 1991 draft by the Orlando Magic. He also played with the Clippers, Timberwolves and Rocket in his career.

Roberts says he has been working out while waiting for the day he would be reinstated. "I'm not trying to brag," Roberts said in an interview with The Associated Press in October, "but I could go out right now and dunk on most of the NBA. ...

"I know I made mistakes. So has everybody else."

Ashley McGeachy Fox of the Philadelphioa Inquirer reports that the Sixers may be interested in retaining Roberts. To do so, they would have to waive a player to create the roster room. Kenny Satterfield has a guaranteed salary for the remainder of the season, but could be let go to make room for a veteran big man.

Coach Larry Brown has a history with Roberts, coaching him in Philly and with the Clippers.

"I never knew if Stanley really loved to play," said Brown. "I know he liked a lot of things that come with being a professional athlete... I love Stanley. He's a friend. I've had him around. I was sick when he went through that problem. I've spoken to him since. He's anxious to try to get back in the league, so we'll see what happens."

Last night's loss to the Orlando Magic was the sixth straight for the Philadelphia, but it gets worse if you also realise that it was the ninth loss of their last ten games and fourteenth of their last 18.  After this one, a bitter two point deficit, Allen Iverson chimed in with his thoughts writes Phil Jasner of the Philadelphia Daily News.

"I wish I didn't even have to do this," Iverson said. "It's a bad feeling right now. I said it in the fourth quarter, we've got to feel like we can win. I told them we can't feel like, 'Here we go again.' We've got to feel like we're going to win regardless of what happens."

"I think I might be playing the worst I've played in my career," added Iverson. "And the engine starts with me...I'm not playing like an All-Star right now. I'm just out there. I'm not getting it done. If I'm not getting it done, it's hard for us to get it done as a team.

"I'm always willing to point the finger at myself, because when we're going good I get all the praise. If you're going to blame anything on anybody, blame it on me."

Iverson is undoubtedly the star of the team so it is fair to assume that he is largely responsible for the team's demise, but what about the coach?  Jasner writes that he is blaming himself too.

"He's going to do that because he's the captain of the ship," Iverson said. "I'm just one of his top soldiers. If I'm not getting it done, it's on coach and myself. But it's always going to be like that. It starts with me, regardless."

Iverson's comments stem from his team starting out the season with a 15-4 win loss record, quite a difference from the 19-18 to which they now stand.

"The same thing that was going on then is going on now," said point guard Eric Snow. "It didn't just start happening now."

The latest strategy being employed by the Orlando Magic in the never ending saga which is Grant Hill's ankle is to keep their star grounded.  Literally.

John Denton of Florida Today writes that the belief around Orlando is that airline travel has an adverse affect on the painful joint.

"Maybe the one thing we know for sure about this is that flying absolutely affects his ankle," Magic coach Doc Rivers said. "If he had flown up here, there would have been a chance he couldn't have played. And then he might not have played (tonight) against Detroit either."

As it stands Hill missed the Philadelphia game after not travelling with the team, but now is a chance to suit up against his ex-team the Detroit Pistons at home.

"It's no coincidence that's he's struggled on all of our West Coast trips after all of those five-hour flights," Rivers said.

Frank Isola of the New York Daily News reports that the Knicks may have yet another chance to land Todd MacCulloch. Apparently, the Sixers have contacted several teams to see if there is any interest in the 7-foot center.

Isola writes that according to one source, the Knicks are interested.

MacCulloch has lost his starting job to Derrick Coleman and foot problems have decreased his playing time. With the Sixers looking to shake things up, MacCulloch is available. The source says that the Knicks would like to acquire the 26-year old MacCulloch, as long as Kurt Thomas is not involved.

The Knicks have had a couple chances at MacCulloch in the past. They passed on him in the second round of the 1999 draft when he was selected by Philadelphia later in the round. Two summers ago, the Knicks decided not to offer MacCulloch their mid-class exception when he was a restricted free agent because they feared the Sixers would match the offer. Instead, New Jersey offered him the same deal and the Sixers let him go.

Could Sixers coach Larry Brown be the catalyst behind the Sixers latest losing streak?  The team has now lost four straight and seven of their last eight, and as Allen Iverson and Keith Van Horn continue to look frustrated and confused one cannot help but wonder how a team with so much talent can be in such a position.

Perhaps Stephen Smith of the Philadelphia Inquirer can offer some perspective?

"As of late Wednesday night, the Sixers had regressed from championship contenders to wannabes in a matter of four weeks," writes Smith in his latest column.

After starting out the season with a 15-4 record the wheels have all but fallen off the Sixers bandwagon, and during the losing streaks which proceeded the strong start coach Brown has appeared either tired or apathetic, looking every bit his 62 years of age.

"I just don't know what's going on," Sixers point guard Eric Snow said. "[Brown] keeps telling us we have to buy into the way he's coaching and his basics and concepts. I just think some guys really don't understand. We've just got to trust Coach and what he's doing."

"I don't know what we can do," Brown said of the Sixers' recent woes, blaming injuries more than anything else. "Samuel [Dalembert] is not playing. Monty Williams is not playing. Aaron McKie is hurt. Todd MacCulloch is hurt. It's hard. Then we're trying to get [forward] Derrick Coleman in shape. I don't know what to do."

Is a player like Philadelphia's Allen Iverson just what Team USA ordered?  If you listen to USA head coach Larry Brown, who incidently just happens to be Iverson's coach on the Sixers, then that answer would be yes.

According to Dave Lewandowski of the Indianapolis Star Brown says he would love the competitive spirit guard Allen Iverson would bring to the U.S. team, but these would require time and attention which Iverson's track question raises questions about.

Brown states that he believes it would be a great opportunity for his star guard, "but it is a six-week commitment, and it's about sacrificing some things, so we'll see."

"Anyone in their right mind who has seen me play for seven years knows that (not selecting him) wouldn't be fair," said Iverson.

On Friday, Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers committed to play. Tracy McGrady, Tim Duncan, Jason Kidd and Ray Allen previously committed.