Lucas to Wear Almost Every Hat for 76ers : Pro basketball: Former Spurs coach takes over jobs of coach, general manager and vice president in Philadelphia.

John Lucas took charge of the 76ers on Tuesday, warned fans against expecting miracles and said that Philadelphia’s players should expect to run.

“We won’t win the NBA championship next year,” he said, “but we hope to be a better team.”

Lucas doesn’t have to do that much to accomplish his goal. In failing to make the playoffs the last three seasons, the 76ers have lost 160 games.

Owner Harold Katz signed Lucas to a four-year contract as vice president of basketball operations, general manager and coach.

The general manager’s job opened last month when Jim Lynam left to coach the Washington Bullets.

Lucas, 40, who resigned as coach of the San Antonio Spurs last week after a falling-out with management, will take the coaching job from Fred Carter, who had a 32-76 record in 1 1/2 seasons.

Philadelphia has promising 7-foot-6 center Shawn Bradley, emerging forward Clarence Weatherspoon and not much else. Still, Lucas talked optimistically.

“I don’t think we’re a bad basketball team,” he said. “I think we need to work at being a better basketball team.”

In his first NBA coaching job, Lucas took over a Spurs team that was 9-11 and won 24 of the next 27 games. This year, the Spurs were 55-27 but were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Utah Jazz.

Lucas said the 76ers, 25-57 last season, will play an up-tempo, pressing style.

“I believe in winning. I believe in effort and I believe in playing hard,” he said. “We’re going to turn this around. When? That’s a good question, but we’re going to do the work to get it turned around.”

Lucas said he decided to come to the 76ers because he wanted the chance to make all of the basketball decisions.

“That is a role I did not have an opportunity to be in where I was,” he said. “San Antonio was a great opportunity for me. Upper management wanted to go in another direction. They needed an opportunity to have a clean start. I needed an opportunity to have a clean start also.”

Katz said Lucas’ coaching record speaks for itself, and he’s confident Lucas will do well in the other jobs.

“John has run his own business for the last eight years,” Katz said. “John knows business. We sat down (Monday) and I can honestly tell you John knows more than some of the guys who had this job before.”

Lucas, a recovering drug addict, founded a chain of treatment centers in Houston. He also owns the Miami Tropics, a summer team that has featured recovering addicts.