Speights, Young lead Sixers over winless Nets

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - When you stop and think about it, sports and the military have much in common.

The similarities struck 76ers coach Eddie Jordan yesterday - Veterans Day - as he sat in the visiting coach's office at the IZOD Center and watched an ESPN feature that posed the question: Who was the best Army coach? Was it basketball's Mike Krzyzewski or Bob Knight, or football assistant Bill Parcells?

The correct answer for those whose sense of history predates, well, ESPN, probably is the late, great Earl "Red" Blaik, who helped develop Heisman Trophy winners Doc Blanchard, Glenn Davis and Pete Dawkins for the Old Gray Line. But Jordan nonetheless was intrigued by the idea of how precision and tactics in the field can often overcome superior enemy forces.

"Those guys were about preparation and teamwork, not individual play," Jordan said of some of the better sports strategists ever to have passed through West Point.

Perhaps some day, if and when and if he has enough championship-caliber talent at his disposal, Jordan can simply overwhelm opponents with full-frontal assaults. Until then, the first-year Sixers floor leader can only hope to surprise the occasional NBA foe with a series of rear actions (he is partial to Princeton-style backdoor cuts), flanking maneuvers, diversionary tactics and subterfuge.

"If we play as a team," Jordan declared, "we'll win."

The Sixers did in fact beat the winless New Jersey Nets last night, 82-79, but how effectively they played as a team again is open to speculation. Struggling Elton Brand never left the bench in the fourth quarter for the fourth time in five games as Jordan apparently has reached a command decision, at least for now, that outcomes that hang in the balance are best determined by someone other than their highest-priced veteran.

At 4-4, Jordan's Sixers have not settled on an orderly rotation for the remainder of what could prove to be a seasonlong attempt to determine who fits into what role. But one truth does appear to be emerging from all that mixing and matching: Second-year big man Marreese Speights will be an integral part of the team's ultimate makeover, however drastic or slowly evolving that might be.