Sixers sign free-agent center Battie
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Sixers sign free-agent center Battie
The Sixers have signed free-agent center Tony Battie, president and general manager Ed Stefanski announced today.
“We see Tony Battie as a player who can come in and give us additional depth in the front court while also providing a valuable veteran presence for our younger players both on and off the court,” Stefanski said.
Battie (6-11, 240) recently completed his 12th NBA season and has averaged 6.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 0.90 blocks in 772 career games with 418 starts. He has also appeared in 51 playoff games with 30 starts and was a member of the Orlando Magic’s Eastern Conference title team in 2008-09.
"I feel I can bring a veteran presence and leadership," Battie said on a conference call this afternoon. "We have a young core, especially with the bigs; with Marreese [Speights], [Jason] Smith and with me eing a vet. And then we have Spencer Hawes.
"I'm looking forward to bringing what I can and showing my tricks of the trade. I've never been a guy to fill the stat sheet. I'm a team guy. I like to be a defensive presence a hard-nosed rebounder, a guy who loves to do the dirty work."
Battie was the fifth overall pick by Denver in 1997.
Plan B was to bring Michael Cage out of retirement.— dasher- Let me guess, 6 yrs, 75 million dollar contract!!— younged
WOW!!!!!!! Didn't he play at Temple??? Look out Miami!!!!!
Excellent. Now trade Kapono for a decent veteran backup point guard to help coach Jrue and ET. Someone like Kevin Ollie or Eric Snow but younger.— Leegles- Only read the read the first page of comments before commenting so I don't know if they got better, but come on people, the Sixers were bad last season, who do you think they are going to sign as a veteran? They didn't get bad overnight, they won't get good overnight. Stop crying and man up and either get on the bus or stop crying about what they are doing to try and improve. And right now Battie is the kind of player the Sixers need right now.— The Time Is Now
- Get ready to raise a banner next June baby!!!— younggunna917
- You people are all morons, besides the problem of having Eddie Jordan, they had no veteran presence last year. Battie will be a serviceable end of the bench guy. They made their moves, the trade and the draft, and have 13 players on the roster. What do you expect them to do other than veteran minimum signing? Let the kids grow and hope they can con someone into taking Iggy or Brand off their hands.— craigmack
- Battie is essentially the 14th man on a 15 man roster. (The 15th man hasn't been chosen yet, but is likely to be of similar pedigree.) The Sixers hopes for improvement rely on Holiday being better, Turner being better than Green/Williams, and Coach Collins being better. I think they will get better as the year progresses, which I admit is not putting the bar very high.— JohnFC
- This is a move similar to Donyell Marshall coming in a couple years ago. More of a mentor than someone who will produce on the court. Hopefully he can bang the young bigs around and make them tougher.— Aaron B
- you people living in philly are so depressing.— Wise_Owl
- he instantly becomes the best center we have— NovaNation1024
- whew, and I was scared they would try to sign a washed up veteran with nothing but fumes left in the tank like Shaq. love the other replies here. lol— rawl
- 2.4 ppg and 1.5 rpg for the Nets last year. Can't wait to see what he'll do for us.— CBent1
- How pathetic is the Sixers' front court that they have to sign this type of player. Speights/Smith: your heads should be on a swivel.— fillyfan
- Why all this fuss? It's not like we were going to get Howard.— goeagles87
Bob Cooney has been at the Daily News for more than 20 years, working in the sports department for the past 15. This is his third season on the Sixers beat. He has covered just about everything, but mostly college basketball, where he was the La Salle beat writer for six seasons. E-mail Bob at cooneyb@phillynews.com and follow him on Twitter.
