Reality Check Aside, 76ers Find Harmony

In this league, East is East and it’s better off staying there too.

A worn-and-weary band of Philadelphia 76ers straggled into Staples Center for their second game in two nights, coming off a loss in Denver, into the hall of the mountain king, Shaquille O’Neal, and his young helper, Kobe Bryant, and after a long and valiant struggle, succumbed again.

The 76ers still have the NBA’s best record at 14-4, tied with the Utah Jazz. Of course, that’s 13-1 against the East and 1-3 against the West.

Forget sending statements, being disrespected, etc. The 76ers would just have liked to know how they measured up if they had been at full strength, which they weren’t.

“If we had a healthy Matt [Geiger] and a healthy Tyrone [Hill] and a healthy Eric [Snow] and a healthy Aaron [McKie],” said Coach Larry Brown before the game, “you’d be foolish not to see how they stack up.”

Unfortunately for Brown, he had Geiger in civilian clothes and everyone else playing hurt, not that it showed. The 76ers hung tough all night until Bryant and O’Neal turned the fourth quarter into a highlight reel, but that’s what makes underdogs and overdogs.

Hanging tough is what the 76ers do. Actually, after their summer, this is the easy part.

In the summer, Brown was helping coach the Olympic team, which put him in daily contact with a large press contingent, resulting in many pointed statements about his estranged star player, Allen Iverson.

“I’m hopeful that, at 25 years old, a switch will go off inside of him and he’ll want to be here and he’ll want to do what’s right,” said Brown. “If he doesn’t, well, I already said there will be consequences.”

The consequences included a trade to Detroit, which the 76ers and Pistons agreed to but fell apart.

For his part, Iverson wanted to stay but wasn’t feeling too warmly about Brown, either.

Said Allen: “I respect him as a coach and that’s as far as I take that . . . I don’t have to be his friend or anything.”

After many visits with team President Pat Croce, Iverson promised he’d do it Brown’s way.

Iverson and Brown then sat down and straightened things out.

Then, of course, came the news Iverson had recorded a violence-saturated rap song named “40 Bars” with the standard gangsta references to women. When the exhibition season started, the 76ers had pickets around their arena.

Since then . . . surprise . . . everything’s been fine.

“He’s 25 years old,” says Brown of Iverson. “He took it upon himself to change. It’s a sign of growing up. I’m not saying it’s perfect and it’ll be perfect but he’s trying and he’s got the respect of his teammates and our coaching staff.

“It’s nice to be able to walk into arenas and deal with basketball issues and not all that other stuff. And it’s because he’s taken control of all that . . .

“You know, a lot of guys in our league have started out kinda crazy and made an effort to change in a very positive way. The one thing I’ve said about our league, most of the kids who come out of school early get drafted by teams that aren’t very good and winning is not a real priority with those teams, there’s not a lot of great role models on those teams.

“And the kids that go to school four years generally go later in the first round, they go to winning teams. They respect the game more, their teammates are more responsible, winning is an issue and they learn to adjust a lot easier.”

Iverson arrived in the NBA after one year at Georgetown at the age of 21, back when the 76ers were knocking down 15 wins a year, so you know which group he was in: the ones who had to learn everything the hard way.

Iverson’s problem Tuesday was Bryant, who is at least seven, maybe eight inches taller and gets to chase the cat-quick 76er around whenever they meet.

The first time Bryant started on him, two seasons ago in Bryant’s native Philadelphia, Iverson went for 37 points, but what goes around comes around.

Tuesday, Iverson scored 27 points but had to take 27 shots to get them, of which he missed 18.

Meanwhile, Bryant went for 36.

Thursday, the 76er trip continues in Portland, where they’ll be underdogs again.

On the other hand, it’s all just basketball. After what they’ve been through, the 76ers can handle that.