The 76ers apparently thought they were going to hear back today from Eddie Jordan.

We'll never know whether Jordan, a New Jersey Nets assistant coach, might have been the Sixers' choice to succeed Larry Brown, or what the mutual level of interest really was. What we do know is, he agreed yesterday to a 4-year deal to become the coach of the Washington Wizards, the successor to Doug Collins.

We'll never know whether there was any hard truth to rumors that the Nets were prepared to increase Jordan's salary from about $750,000 to $1.5 million. What we do know is, a day after meeting with Sixers president/general manager Billy King, Jordan met with Wizards owner Abe Pollin and president Susan O'Malley.

What we do know is, Jordan spent some time watching 6-7 Georgia forward Jarvis Hayes go through a predraft workout on the MCI Center practice court. Sometime shortly afterward, everything else fell into place.

An educated guess would suggest that Jordan welcomed the opportunity to return to his native D.C. area, and that the Wizards' package was too enticing to turn down.

Here's what else we know:

A source familiar with the Sixers' situation confirmed that King met yesterday with former Atlanta and Cleveland coach Mike Fratello, and with Terry Stotts, who completed this season as the interim coach of the Hawks.