It’s hard for 76ers fans not to feel down on this dump

As a sworn contrarian and hot dog, there’s no percentage whatsoever in sneering at the 76ers. Every Tom, Dick and Harry will do that and these days most of them write blogs.

So just for a moment, let’s look at the Allen Iverson trade from Philadelphia’s perspective ...

Whew, this is harder than I thought.

Well, I tried.

Moving Iverson may have been rough on 76ers President Billy King, but it was a great 10 days for the league, because everyone, but everyone, was part of it.

Ending his news blackout Sunday night, King said he had talked to 27 of a possible 29 teams and insisted he had no timetable for trading Allen Iverson.

“I have to make sure that we are very methodical,” said King. “This is a big decision.”

Tuesday he traded Iverson.

That was 36 hours and it wasn’t because Denver blew them away with a big offer. The package the Nuggets got -- Andre Miller, Joe Smith and two No. 1 picks -- was on the table last week.

Giving up all leverage by dumping on Iverson in a p.r. move -- which didn’t work locally or nationally -- the 76ers started out with modest requests and finished with a lot less than that.

Instead of a young prospect, the 76ers got a 30-year-old point guard to go with a $6.8-million expiring contract and two No. 1 picks that will probably be in the 20s.

Just what the Eastern Conference needed, one less superstar, however problematic. As for the West ... well, it could be great!

If Iverson had gone to Minnesota, it would have had to work. His game and his personality were perfect fits for Kevin Garnett. KG was crazy to get him. AI was dying to go.

Iverson and Carmelo Anthony -- even if the Nuggets don’t have to worry about that until Jan. 20 when Anthony’s suspension is up -- we’ll have to see about that.

Anthony, who has always been Numero Uno and one of the more fawned-over Numero Unos at that, just started life as Numero Dos. The big question is whether he’ll get the ball enough to average 22 points, much less his current 32.

No matter how big a heart Iverson has, he played on only five winning teams in 10 seasons, four of them under Larry Brown.

As great as he was, Iverson made teammates a lot better only when Brown hand-picked them. Making Iverson play without the ball instead of pounding it into the floor while five opponents waited for him to make his move, Brown paired him with Eric Snow, got everyone to defend like crazy and made the 2001 NBA Finals.

It’s possible that Iverson has chilled out. He was never better than last season when he posted his highest scoring average (33.0), his second-best-shooting percentage (44.7%) and his third-best assist total (7.4).

In any case, the Nuggets won’t do it Brown’s way. They’re one of the teams that really runs, as opposed to talking about it, so win or lose, this could be some show.

Meanwhile, in Minnesota -- If Garnett was upset before, how does he feel now?

Chicago -- Back in the picture for Garnett if he pops on the market. If Iverson went to Minnesota, that was over.

Philadelphia -- Gonzo.

Iverson should have been out of there two years ago -- which would have been a year after Brown left (48-34 in his final season), with Randy Ayers having come and gone too (33-49 in his only season).

Failing that, they should have done it last season. Failing that, they should done it last summer.

Failing that, they should have refrained from turning it into a three-ring circus.

The only super-prospect whose name even came up was the Clippers’ Shaun Livingston, but that was a non-starter, if a particularly popular idea with Clippers fans. Fortunately -- I’d say -- Coach Mike Dunleavy makes those calls.

The 76ers asked the Nuggets for J.R. Smith but wound up with Joe Smith. They asked for Marcus Camby but were offered Nene -- whose contract doesn’t expire until 2012 and pays him an average of $10 million.

The No. 1 picks the 76ers got were Denver’s and Dallas’. At present they’d be Nos. 20 and 27.

The best thing the 76ers have is their own pick, which would now be No. 1-4, depending on the lottery.

With a monster draft class on the horizon, if you’re going to be awful or memorably dumb, this is the season. I don’t know if King can get away with saying he held on to Iverson after seeing Greg Oden and Kevin Durant as high school sophomores, but if he winds up with one of them, it’s worth a try.

This was one for the books. Half the league called right away. The other half called within days, figuring if the 76ers would take nobodies, why not theirs?

Teams that didn’t care about Iverson proposed three-way deals to dump their big contracts. Portland tried to unload Jamaal Magloire. Chicago tried to move P.J. Brown, who got so upset when he heard about it, he asked to be traded in any case.

In the end, it was fun for the whole league, which, let’s face it, needed it.

mark.heisler@latimes.com