Johnny Davis

Derrick Coleman is back. Sort of. Not far enough to be the player he was as a member of Dream Team II, or as a 1994 NBA All-Star. But pretty far. The 6-10 76ers forward is back far enough that he still commands double-teams in the low post and sometimes even on the perimeter. He's back far enough to be averging 17.2 points, 8.7 rebounds and 4.2 assists going into tonight's game against the Miami Heat at the CoreStates Center. But not all the way. Not yet. He did not play at all for the New Jersey Nets last season after an episode of an irregular heartbeat, then, after he was traded to Philadelphia in November, was limited to 11 appearances with the Sixers because of a severely sprained ankle.

The worst start in the 15-year history of the Orlando Magic cost Doc Rivers his job, the first coaching casualty of an NBA season that has barely begun. Only a few hours after Rivers talked to reporters about how management has stuck behind him, he was fired and replaced by assistant coach Johnny Davis, a former 76ers head coach. General manager John Gabriel delivered the news late Monday night in a meeting at the team's hotel in Salt Lake City following the 1-10 Magic's 90-88 loss to Utah.

The wait for Allen Iverson's bruised right knee to heal continues, and 76ers coach Randy Ayers says that his star might join the team after the start of its five-game road trip. Iverson missed his fifth straight game last night when the Sixers took on the Orlando Magic at the Wachovia Center. Ayers said that he had talked with Iverson yesterday and reported that progress was slow. "We're looking at him maybe joining us on the West Coast trip," Ayers said last night. "I don't know when.

Larry Brown is expected to be in Philadelphia tonight to meet with 76ers president Pat Croce. Despite what you might have heard about the Indiana Pacers' coach being the favorite to succeed the yet-to-be-displaced M.L. Carr as the Boston Celtics' coach, Brown still is very much in the Sixers' picture. Celtics president Red Auerbach yesterday told the Boston Globe that the team would have a new coach, confirming what had been assumed. Brown also vaulted into the picture with the Golden State Warriors, who yesterday obtained permission to speak with him. The Warriors, who also received permission to speak with Chicago Bulls coach Phil Jackson, fired Rick Adelman on Monday.

Johnny Davis, with 19-plus seasons of experience as a player, coach and administrator, recognizes the dilemma the 76ers face. The trouble is, his players don't always seem sure. "We get through 2 1/2, three quarters of a game, then they don't seem sure what to do when it's time to turn it up a notch," said Davis, in his first season as the Sixers' coach. "Some of it is a lack of experience, guys playing without recognizing the time and score, cranking up a 'three' when we don't necessarily need one, trying to do something spectacular when all we need is a solid play.

Derrick Coleman won't have a hand in the 76ers' game tonight against the Orlando Magic. No pun intended. The Sixers' power forward, who suffered a laceration of his left pinkie Jan. 8, said yesterday that the finger felt "terrible" and that "I won't be playing until after the All-Star break. " That means that Coleman, the team's No. 3 scorer and leading rebounder, will miss at least the next three games, leading up to the Feb. 9 All-Star Game in Cleveland. The Sixers play in Milwaukee Saturday night and at home Wednesday night against San Antonio before the break.

The 76ers don't know who their center will be, but they do know their 1995-96 season will begin Nov. 1 against the Milwaukee Bucks. The season opener is significant for several reasons: It will be the Sixers' first appearance in the new CoreStates Center, it will be Johnny Davis's coaching debut and it will come 50 years to the day after the first NBA game ever. But after that? "You play 41 at home, 41 on the road and it all evens out," Sixers general manager Brad Greenberg said.

Brad Greenberg, now the general manager of the 76ers, knew in the summer of 1994 that Johnny Davis was a head coach waiting to happen. Davis had been an assistant with the Los Angeles Clippers, when head coach Bob Weiss was fired after the 1993-94 season. Searching for a job, Davis asked to meet with Greenberg, then the interim general manager of the Portland Trail Blazers, who was searching for a head coach to succeed Rick Adelman. "Johnny asked to meet with me during the predraft camp in Chicago, to let me know he was a head-coaching candidate," Greenberg said.

Mark West was going to be the 76ers' center. His contract was more than just on the table. He had worked out in Philadelphia last summer and passed a physical. A copy of a deal that would pay him $1 million and $1.2 million over two seasons was in agent Gerald Purnell's hands. "I really wanted to play for [new Sixers coach] Johnny Davis," West said before stepping on the court last night as Cleveland's starter in the Cavaliers' 105-89 victory over the Sixers. "I had been his teammate in Cleveland, believed he could make that situation into a winner.

The Phoenix Suns, who are said to be rebuilding after trading Charles Barkley to Houston, last night gave the 76ers their first defeat of the preseason, beating them by 104-92. Maybe it was the Suns' Wayman Tisdale, listed at 260 pounds but looking a good 290, dropping in 16 points in the third quarter, blowing past Sixers stationary center Scott Williams for 12 of those. Tisdale would finish with 20. Maybe it was that Allen Iverson, the Sixers' new point guard, had 17 points but no assists while again finding himself in early foul trouble.