A source has confirmed that the 76ers will officially interview Eddie Jordan on Friday of this week.
The two parties have already spoken via telephone, so this would be an official face-to-face meeting with the Sixers and General Manager Ed Stefanski.In response to a request for comment, Stefanski and the Sixers said that “at this time, we don’t have any comment regarding the ongoing coaching search.”
Yesterday, Jordan met in Las Vegas with the Sacramento Kings for their coaching vacancy. He has said publically that he would be talking to the Sixers, also. Another source close to Jordan said that between the two vacancies, Jordan would prefer the Sixers because of their immediate ability to contend.
Jordan’s name has been in the mix for the Sixers’ vacancy since Stefanski fired Maurice Cheeks on Dec. 13, 2008.
Stefanski and Jordan worked together for four seasons at the New Jersey Nets.
Jordan was most recently the coach of the Washington Wizards; he was fired earlier this season after coaching them since 2003.
Jordan also previously coached the Kings from 1997-98.
The lowdown on Jordan’s coaching style: His overall coaching record is 230-288 (.444), but those numbers have taken a hit because he was fired from the Kings just before they finished rebuilding. He had some success with the Wizards, where he coached for five full seasons and the first 11 games of this season. From 2004-08, four straight seasons, Jordan had Washington in the playoffs. They made it to the Eastern Conference Semifinals in 2004-05.
This season, the Wizards started 1-10. They were without two starters including star guard Gilbert Arenas, but Jordan was fired.
Jordan is known as an offensive coach, adept at running the Princeton offense, and one source close to him has said the puzzle of fitting power forward Elton Brand into the offensive scheme is the kind of thing with which Jordan could work wonders.
(Princeton offense would be a system predicated on backdoor cuts, ball movement, going backdoor when overplayed, and moving without the basketball.)
Jordan is not, however, known as a defensive coach, so you would assume he would have someone on staff dedicated to defense.
But considering right now the Sixers’ biggest problems are an abundance of forwards and a lack of shooting, if Jordan has the offensive mindset to tweak their sets and make things work, that would be crucial. -philly.com
Eddie Jordan huh? Interesting while at first I really don’t like the idea of this that much. But looking at it as a whole it’s really not that bad of a choice. Still I would go after Gibson, VanDundy or Johnson. But hey thats just me I’m no expert but I would go with a coach that is better at rebuilding a team rather then just coaching it.
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