Three free agents, including two with local connections, have been added to the 76ers' roster for today's opening of training camp.

Former college standouts Jeff Myers of Drexel, a 6-foot-2 guard, and Lamont Barnes of Temple, a 6-10 forward, were signed to free-agent contracts yesterday, as was 7-2 center Robb Dryden of Georgia. With their additions, the Sixers' training-camp roster numbers 19.

The three new signees reported to camp at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine yesterday, along with other players with three or fewer years of NBA experience. The group will take part in its first practice this morning under Randy Ayers, the Sixers' rookie head coach.

This afternoon, the veterans will report. The first full-squad workout will take place tomorrow morning, with Ayers beginning a series of two-a-day practices.

Among the 10 players with three or fewer years of experience are 6-10 center/forward Marc Jackson, the former Temple star who was acquired from Minnesota in July in a four-team deal, and two players who missed last season with knee injuries - 6-11 center Samuel Dalembert and 6-7 forward Sam Clancy. Also among them are the Sixers' two second-round picks in this year's NBA draft - 6-4 guard Willie Green and 6-7 forward Kyle Korver.

They now have a legitimate No. 2 scorer to take some of the heat off Allen Iverson, but can they rebound?

They have enough depth at guard to pressure opposing offenses at times, but can they defend the opposition's big inside people in the half-court?

They have a new head coach who spent six years learning the pro game under Hall of Famer Larry Brown, but how will he handle his first NBA season in the spotlight?

The 76ers have reasons for optimism to go with a bushel of questions as rookie head coach Randy Ayers opens training camp this week at the team's practice facility at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Rookies and free agents will report tomorrow and have their first practice Tuesday morning. Veterans will come in Tuesday afternoon, and the full squad will begin two-a-day practices Wednesday.

Ayers, whose most recent head coaching job was at Ohio State, said that while he will retain a lot of the old concepts under Brown, he will introduce some new ones, and he will take his time.

"I hope I don't rush the process," he said. "We look at training camp as a monthlong process. I don't think it's just the first three or four days when you go two-a-days. You have to think of training camp as the month of October. I want to make sure we cover some things.

"At this level, because of the lack of preparation time, you can't always go back and reteach. You have to get your foundation in right now."

As Bobby Hurley drifted back to watching the NBA games he no longer could play, guess who was one of the main attractions?

"It's [Allen] Iverson,'' Hurley was saying yesterday, after being named a pro scout by the 76ers. "He made me a believer my last 2 years as a player, having to try and guard him.

"I just appreciated his energy, his heart, kind of how I always wanted to play, maybe a little less talented, or even a lot less talented.''

Iverson signed a 4-year extension with the Sixers Wednesday evening. Hurley joined the Sixers' organization yesterday.

When Sixers president/general manager Billy King decided to expand the team's basketball operations department, he went back to his Duke roots for Hurley, who led the Blue Devils to NCAA national championships in 1991 and '92. King also reached westward for former Los Angeles Clippers assistant coach Rex Kalamian as an advance scout.

Kalamian, who spent two of his Clippers seasons as an assistant to current Sixers assistant Chris Ford, left that organization after last season. Hurley is back in the league after retiring because of a crushing auto accident in '93 and a severe knee injury several years later. He is hopeful that, as a once-overachieving 5-10, 165-pound point guard who became the No. 7 overall pick by Sacramento in the 1993 draft, he can see beyond the sheer talent of players around the league.

"A lot of guys can assess who can score with a right hand or left hand, who can go to the hole, who can shoot,'' he said. "Hopefully, I'll rely on my instincts, which were fairly good when I was playing.

"I always felt I was physically able to play at this level, that there was a place for me in the league. That's what I'll look for, guys with talent who in a better scenario might contribute more.''

Allen Iverson arrived at the Wachovia Center yesterday to sign his new megabucks deal wearing the white No. 5 jersey of Donovan McNabb, another prominent Philadelphia athlete who recently signed a megabucks deal.

Of course, McNabb, the Eagles' quarterback, has been under much scrutiny since signing his $112.9 million contract last year, becoming the No. 1 target of the city's boobirds given the team's 0-2 start.

But Iverson, who wore the jersey in a show of support for McNabb, knows all about scrutiny. The 76ers' franchise guard said he has gone through it "all my life" and knows it's bound to get more intense after the four-year, $76.7 million extension that he signed yesterday on the arena floor in front of about 3,000 season-ticket holders who cheered every other sentence he uttered.

Even with the scrutiny and the criticism in his seven seasons, Iverson insisted he didn't want to be anywhere else but Philadelphia for the next six years, or through the 2008-09 season.

"That was the whole plan," he said last night. "Once I got drafted, I felt I did not want to do that to little kids. I didn't want them to see me in a Sixers uniform one year and see me in another uniform in another city the next year. It just means a lot to me that I can be in a Sixers uniform for the rest of my career."

Iverson, 28, has two years remaining on his current deal - worth $13.5 million this season and $14.625 million in 2004-05.

He is expected to make $16.4 million in the first year of the extension, followed by annual salaries of $18.3 million, $20.1 million and $21.9 million, according to league sources.

Adding up the salaries for six seasons, Iverson will be earning about $104.8 million. The contract will keep him in a Sixers uniform until two months before his 34th birthday.

Ailing center Todd MacCulloch met yesterday with 76ers president Billy King and coach Randy Ayers and told them that he will report to training camp and participate in drills.

MacCulloch, 27, hasn't played in a game since Feb. 2 because of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a rare degenerative neuromuscular disorder that affects his balance.

King said that MacCulloch was "very upbeat and positive" during the meeting. He said that the player's visits to doctors and therapists had resulted in at least partial return of his balance and that he was looking forward to testing himself when the veterans report to training camp Tuesday.

"There is hope," King said. "He wants to do everything he can to get back on the court and play. I told him I want him to do everything he can do. He is a part of our team."

MacCulloch has a guaranteed contract that will pay him $5,445,600 this season. But the Sixers, who have 16 players on their training-camp roster, might end up needing his spot once NBA rosters are trimmed to 15 players (12 active, plus three on the injured list) before the Oct. 28 season opener.

"I don't think we have to make those decisions until the end [of camp]," King said. "We will address it when it's time to address it."

Allen Iverson accomplished more than anyone ever knew during the Olympic qualifying tournament last month in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Aside from helping the United States earn a berth in next summer's Olympics in Athens, Greece, aside from emerging as the most popular player in the 10-team qualifying field, the 76ers' star guard was laying the groundwork for a 4-year contract extension that will kick in with the 2005-06 NBA season.

While Iverson was helping the U.S. team sweep through the tournament undefeated, his agent, Leon Rose, was meeting in San Juan with Sixers president/general manager Billy King to hammer out various details.

The result, according to two sources: Iverson will be signed to a new deal through the 2008-09 season. He could have opted out of his existing contract after the coming season. Including the $13.5 million he will be paid this season and the $14.625 million in what would have been his option year, the package will be worth a total of about $104 million. That includes a high of $21.9 million in 2008-09.

If Iverson, 28, fulfills the length of the new deal, he will have spent 13 seasons with the Sixers, more than any player since the franchise moved to Philadelphia from Syracuse in 1963. Both Julius Erving and Maurice Cheeks played 11 seasons; Hal Greer played 15 seasons with the franchise, the first five in Syracuse.

Iverson has won three scoring titles and was the league's Most Valuable Player in 2000-01, driving the Sixers to the Finals for the first time since Erving, Moses Malone and Cheeks led them there in 1982-83.

King said yesterday that the Sixers would have a "special surprise" tonight at a party for season ticketholders at the Wachovia Center. Iverson is expected to be introduced to the crowd, with the formal announcement of the extension.

Allen Iverson is a 7-year NBA veteran, an Olympian. Two strong reasons for Randy Ayers feeling more than comfortable when the new 76ers coach met last week with his star guard.

"I see a guy that's more at peace with himself," Ayers said. "I think the summer was great. I think everybody in Philly knew that experience could be a positive one for him.

"I give him credit; he went and used it as one, or made it one. I looked at him from across the table and I saw a person that was more relaxed, and one that's ready to assume more of a leadership role."

Iverson was terrific in helping the U.S. team qualify for next summer's Olympics in Athens, Greece. In the midst of the Americans' dominance in the qualifying tournament, he said several times that he was learning things he hoped he could bring back to the Sixers.

"He has to address those with you," Ayers said. "I told him, even though we had been around each other for 6 years, I wanted to hear some things come out of his mouth in terms of him being a leader, being able to make some adjustments."

Ayers, the successor to Larry Brown, wants to use Iverson - the starting shooting guard - at the point when Eric Snow is out of the game. Iverson, in turn, wants Ayers to retain some of the plays the Sixers ran last season, sets in which he feels comfortable.

"I wanted to hear some things come from him, instead of me assuming some things," Ayers said. "And also for him to hear some things from me on how I thought we should be able to play. I thought we exchanged some ideas. It's something I hope to do throughout the whole year, because I think you have to have a rapport with your better players.

"In a nutshell, here's what made me feel comfortable coming out of the meeting: He told me, 'Coach, just coach. I'm on board with you. I just want you to coach.' And I think your best players have to allow you to do that. I've got to coach to my personality, and what I believe in. By him telling me that, I'm just going to go with it and not be worried about it."

Todd MacCulloch is one of the 76ers veterans scheduled to report Oct. 2 for the second phase of training camp at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. But it is virtually certain that the 7-foot center will not be ready to play or participate in many - if any - drills.

MacCulloch has not played since Feb. 2 of last season, relegated to the injured list with what the Sixers have described as a foot neuropathy and what some medical people have determined to be Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a genetic disorder that has affected his balance and mobility and conceivably could end his career.

At the same time, MacCulloch hopes to still find a way to continue playing and has not been willing to accept the concept of immediate retirement. At 27, he has four seasons remaining on a guaranteed contract worth more than $24 million. He spent part of the summer searching for treatments that could help, including visiting a physiotherapist in San Diego.

For now, he is one of 16 players on the Sixers' roster, one more than the maximum 15 permitted (12 active) when the regular season begins Oct. 28.

Given all of that, Sixers president/general manager Billy King plans to meet with MacCulloch later this week to try and clarify the situation. Players with three seasons or less experience report Sept. 29. King said he would defer any public comment until after the meeting.

"I don't feel able to jump in [as a player]," MacCulloch said in a recent interview. "I hope they want me around. I hope that includes being at camp, doing what I can do until I'm ready - if I'm ready."

But he is not ready to accept retirement.

"I can't do that," he said. "I don't want to do that. There's too much at stake. I'm going to let it play out. I haven't really put a time limit on it."

Is there anything that Chris Jent could possibly teach Allen Iverson about basketball?

He believes he can, if the NBA superstar is eager to listen. Jent, who was named a Philadelphia 76ers assistant coach in July, will eventually have plenty of opportunities to work with him.

Since the well-traveled athlete has bounced a basketball in places ranging from Rapid City, South Dakota, to Bilbao, Spain to Melbourne, Australia, he?s no doubt learned a trick or two that could benefit plenty of young players and even some experienced ones.

?I think it?s helped,? Jent said. ?Because now you can play some zone. I played with a lot of zones on offense and defense. It?s helped in that respect. I played with a number of different coaches. Doing that builds your basketball IQ.?

Whether he can help improve a superstar like Iverson is another story.

?That?s up to him,? Jent said. ?He?s such a natural talent. He?s the kind of guy that can play a perfect game. It?s a player?s duty to reach that place and he just gets better and better.

?He?s not just a shooter. He gets steals, he gets aggressive, and he works hard fighting through picks. He sure does shoot. He has the attitude that I?m the best player, I should shoot a lot.?

In talking to Todd MacCulloch over the years, you never got the impression he took things for granted. Oh, he'd downplay the fact he was living a kid's dream, being paid millions to play pro basketball, but that seemed to come out of genuine modesty, and a distaste for the spotlight.

You always believed MacCulloch was simply trying to keep things as real as possible, in what can be a very unreal world -- the NBA.

But that doesn't mean he didn't appreciate what he had.

Now that it's been taken away from him, that has never been more true.

Struck down by a rare combination of nerve disorders last January, MacCulloch continues to suffer symptoms. And for the first time since he was growing up in Winnipeg, he faces an autumn without hoops.

"I haven't been playing much ball," MacCulloch told The Sun this week. "I miss it a lot. I miss everything. I miss the guys, I miss the competition, I even miss practice. I miss drills. I miss the thought of not being able to go through training camp. I never really loved training camp, but I miss it more than I ever did, that's for sure."

Barring a miracle, MacCulloch's team, the Philadelphia 76ers, will open training camp in a few weeks without him.