The reigning Eastern Conference Champions are out.  Allen Iverson did his best to try to carry the Philadelphia Sixers into the second round of the playoffs but in the end there was just too much Paul Piece for his team to handle.

Coach Larry Brown insisted that he wanted to return to the helm of the Philadelphia Sixers, stating so after his team bowed out of the 2002 Playoffs race in the first round with a 120-87 loss.  Unless Sixers chairman Ed Snider "doesn't want me back, I intend to be back," Brown said.

But what about Iverson?  After Game 2 Brown seemingly became tired of Iverson?s insistence to put up big numbers, making a comment that most interpreted as a dig against Iverson that Boston?s Paul Piece and Antoine Walker were out there to win rather than try to dominate the game.  "I think their star players are thinking about winning the game and not dominating the game," were Brown?s words after Game 2, a loss which left the Sixers down 2-0.  Iverson, however, said the friction between the two has been a fabrication of the media and that there are no issues.

As John Smallwood of the Philadelphia Daily News reports Brown, as the Sixers vice president of basketball operations as well as head coach, has the power to trade any player, Iverson included.  And, according to Smallwood, all indications are that he will have Sixers chairman Ed Snider's support if he decides to do so.

Brown has to do something to correct this ship, whether it is trading Iverson or rebuilding some of the pieces around the superstar.  The problem would not be trading Iverson, but rather what they could fetch in return.

Since they will not receive a Shaquille O?Neal, Kobe Bryant or a Tim Duncan if they sacrifice the reigning league MVP they most certainly would be getting less in return.  

So why give up a player in the class of Iverson when he is clearly the Sixers best chance at winning?  The team has been built around his unique skill set, so trading Iverson would also mean re-creating a new nucleus, which doesn?t sound appetising to anyone.

Iverson, for his part, has stated he wants to remain a Sixer for his entire career.  Whether the Sixers want this is another thing.

"Yeah, I'm all right with it," Iverson said when asked whether he and Brown can come back for a sixth season together. "I don't have a problem with coach Brown. It's just something that's been built up over the years. Once one incident happened, you keep talking about the same thing over and over and over.  Then after a while, everybody gets on it, even the fans. People start writing about it and it gets blown all out of proportion.?

"When things are going bad during the season, you always point the finger at me. I accept that because I'm the leader on this team. When we win, I get the praise, also. That comes with the territory.

"If you want to start something, sell newspapers, getting people to watch your local station, you talk about Allen Iverson and Larry Brown feuding, when in actuality it's not that bad at all."