Larry Brown vented to reporters yesterday. Tom Moore of Phillyburbs.com reports that Brown's frustration with Allen Iverson is showing.

Brown was annoyed that Iverson didn't practice yesterday because of right elbow soreness. Speedy Claxton, who is on the injured list with a sprained ankle, was the only other Sixer who didn't participate.

"We had a great practice," Brown said. "We had everybody here but Allen, which is typical."

Later, when talking about the Sixers' perennial need for a perimeter scorer, Brown seemed to be referring to Iverson when he said, "Well, we don't have anybody who'll pass it to a shooter. It hasn't happened."

"Yeah, we had Timmy Thomas and Toni Kukoc," Brown said. "The only (small forward) who flourished was George (Lynch) because George was rebounding and defending. He wanted to shoot the ball, but he realized, 'Hell, I'll never get it, so I'm going to rebound and defend.'

"Anybody we get there who wants to shoot the ball, they never get the ball. So we can have Michael Jordan out there (and) if he spotted up, I doubt he'd get the ball. So what does it matter?"

Brown also said he'd like for Iverson to concentrate on getting other players involved early and then hit the big shots in the fourth quarter.

"We come out and do it (bleep) backwards," Brown said. "When Allen gets other people off early, it'll make us better and make it easier on him. He's got to understand the fourth quarter is his quarter. That's winning time. You can talk about it all you want - it's a learning process."

We shall see if Iverson "learns" to play the way Brown envisions.