Former NBA players Webber, Anthony question Sixers plan

Former NBA players Greg Anthony and Chris Webber don't endorse the way the 76ers are building their team, suggesting that a losing culture is difficult to reverse.

Both were on a conference call to promote TNT's Christmas doubleheader - at 8 pm. Chicago will host the Los Angeles Lakers and then at 10:30 Golden State visits the Los Angeles Clippers, in a game that Webber will be part of the announcing team.

"I am not a huge fan of the approach," Anthony said. "I understand wanting to get talent and assets and having those place to be in a position to make other moves."

Then he gave the negative side of it.
"The problem is you create a culture of losing and have a lot of confidence lost as well," Anthony said. "That is hard to get back."

And Anthony says that it can be a long-term problem.

"That is why you see teams typically when they lose, they have a pattern of consistently losing for years," he said. "It is hard to win in this league so I am not a huge fan of the plans."

Added Webber: "If you are in a culture of losing, everybody from your mother to your agent is trying to get you out of there. "No way(that)  you learn from a losing culture."

Not surprisingly, both  former players said that the Sixers, as much as they are struggling, would have their way against a college team.

That debate arose when Phoenix Suns guard Eric Bledsoe said in an interview on Sirius Radio that his alma mater, the University of Kentucky, would beat the Sixers in five games during a seven-game series.

While Bledsoe inferred he was not altogether serious, it still stirred the debate.

"I don't think there is any scenario where a college team would beat Philadelphia," Anthony said. "If they played college team 82 games could a college team win a game a couple, well anything can happen, but no way a college team can compete with those guys."

Webber agreed.

"Out of 1,000 games (a college team) could win a couple but it is disrespectful to the NBA to answer that," Webber said. "Players are physically stronger."

Anthony did have something positive to say about the Sixers. "I do like some of their young pieces moving forward," he said.

It's just that he doesn't like the process the young players have to go through in order to attempt to take the next step forward.