Check out other Sixers Publications

by Tom Moore

Derrick Coleman has spent 13 years in the NBA. And he doesn't plan on retiring anytime soon.

Late in the 2002-03 season, his fifth with the 76ers, Coleman said he could play as many as five more years.

Coleman has already played for eight head coaches - Bill Fitch, Chuck Daly and Butch Beard in New Jersey, John Lucas, Johnny Davis and Larry Brown with the Sixers, and Dave Cowens and Paul Silas in Charlotte. If he does play until he's 40, that number could reach double digits.

Coleman has seen a lot in 13 years. He has been on good teams and bad. He's been on teams that won as many as 49 games in a season and as few as 18. He started out as a star power forward and has evolved, partly due to the Sixers' situation, into a starting center on a team headed for the playoffs.

Coleman was the No.1 pick in the 1990 NBA Draft after a record-setting career at Syracuse. Only nine players from that college class - Gary Payton, Tyrone Hill, Elden Campbell, Kendall Gill, Bimbo Coles, Tony Massenburg, Greg Foster and Scott Williams - are still playing. Coleman, who is still the all-time leading rebounder in Syracuse University history (1,537), was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in 1991.

"Derrick was always a very skilled and unselfish player who knew how to play the game," said longtime Syracuse assistant coach Bernie Fine. "He has always been very fundamentally sound and a great rebounder."

Time, surgeries, and wear and tear have turned Coleman from an immensely talented all-around player into one less explosive but more reliant on his experience and smarts.

"You slow down a little, but I told (Brown), 'When it's time (at the end of games), I'll be there,' " said Coleman in late February. "I'm 35, not 25."

“	When it's time (at the end of games), I'll be there. I'm 35, not 25.” — Derrick Coleman

But Coleman has had his moments this season. He had a crucial blocked shot and then drained a 16-foot jumper to seal a 111-107 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Feb. 26. He also had four blocks - three in the fourth quarter - in a Dec. 11 game against the Seattle SuperSonics. The Sixers are unbeaten (3-0) when he scores 20 points and his plus-minus ratio (points scored when on the floor) is second on the team.

"I think he's modified his game to use his body more for rebounding and defensive position," said Sixers general manager Billy King. "He was always a cerebral player. That's what allows him to play at 35."

Brown has become Coleman's NBA version of Jim Boeheim, who coached him for four All-American years at Syracuse and has always been one of Coleman's biggest supporters. Coleman, in turn, attends as many Syracuse basketball games as he can and stays in touch with Boeheim and numerous college teammates.

"Derrick has always been loyal to the program and has always come to see us play if he's anywhere near where we're playing," Fine said. "He was back on campus in the fall and remains a huge part of our basketball family."

Brown repeatedly praised Coleman as the Sixers' best interior defender and lauded Coleman's on-court contributions. "He's been great," Brown said.

When Coleman's name kept appearing in rumored deals prior to the Feb. 20 trade deadline, Brown regularly updated Coleman on what was - or wasn't - happening. Once the deadline passed, Coleman thanked Brown publicly for being so honest with him.

"The way he handled this, you can't ask for anything better than that," Coleman said. "I think this is the first time any coach or GM let me know what is going on and what is out there. I think it's a matter of respect. No organization I've been with had done that."

“	The main thing is he knows Larry (Brown) is in his corner. That's what Derrick wants. He doesn't want any doubters.” — Billy King

The Brown-Coleman relationship didn''t start out so good. Once Brown became head coach and vice president of basketball operations in May 1997, Coleman said he didn't want to be part of a perennial losing organization like the Sixers. Brown didn't appreciate those comments and said Coleman should do everything in his power to make the Sixers better.

The two soon formed a mutual admiration society that continued through Coleman's three years in Charlotte after he left Philadelphia as a free agent. When the Sixers needed a power forward less than a week before the start of the 2001-02 season, Brown re-acquired Coleman from the Hornets for George Lynch, Robert "Tractor" Traylor and Jerome Moiso. Coleman was glad to be the Sixers' starting power forward once again.

"The main thing is he knows Larry is in his corner," King said. "That's what Derrick wants. He doesn't want any doubters."

Coleman had a solid 2001-02 season, but his left knee worsened in the second half of the season. He underwent arthroscopic surgery June 11 that caused him to miss the first 10 games this season and took him at least a month to get back into playing shape.

Coleman has always been popular with his teammates and taken pride in his accomplishments, of which there have been many.

"He's a guy they know will always have their back," King said. "He's very direct. He doesn't pull any punches or go behind your back."

In his prime - his first five professional seasons - Coleman averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds, earning him a spot on the 1994 Eastern Conference all-star team and allowing him to play on the 1994 U.S. team that brought home the gold medal in the world championships.

Coleman reached his on-court peak in the 1993 playoffs. He was the best player on the floor in the Nets' entertaining five-game loss to the Cavaliers, averaging 26.8 points, 13.4 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 2.6 blocks and shooting 53.2 percent from the field. Coleman, then 25, was at the top of his game when he climbed up on the press table to exhort the Jersey fans after a spirited 96-79 Game 4 victory.

Coleman, who was named to Syracuse's all-century team, has accumulated 338 career double-doubles (points-rebounds), four triple-doubles and scored in double figures 597 times as a pro. He is one of 160 players in NBA history to score 12,000 points.

And he doesn't plan on leaving the game anytime soon, regardless of what his detractors say.

"I think people want Derrick to be some way other than just Derrick being Derrick," King said. "Derrick's going to do what he's capable of doing, not what everybody else wants him to do."