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It was a steep fall from grace for 76ers president and general manager Billy King. Once regarded as one of the NBA's brightest young executives, he was fired Tuesday and replaced by Nets GM Ed Stefanski.

King was considered a prodigy when Larry Brown hired him as Philadelphia's vice president of basketball administration in June 1997. Promoted to general manager a year later, King engineered a swift turnaround in Philadelphia. King orchestrated the trades that brought forward Tyrone Hill and center Dikembe Mutombo to the Sixers. He also re-signed guard Eric Snow and signed forward George Lynch and center Matt Geiger as free agents. That group, along with Allen Iverson, formed the core of a team that advanced to the 2001 NBA Finals.

Perhaps equally as important to the franchise was King's relationship with Brown, who has been known to favor blowing up an entire roster after a particularly disappointing loss. King's ability to talk Brown off the proverbial ledge and develop a strong working relationship with him was invaluable to Philadelphia's success (from 1999-2003, the Sixers reached at least the second round four times). The two have known each other since King was a highly recruited star in Sterling, Va., and Brown, as Kansas coach, recruited him. King eventually signed with Duke.

"I can't put into words what Billy means to this franchise," former Sixers president Pat Croce said in 2001. "He's the architect of our resurrection."

But King's recent history has been marred by indecisiveness. He promoted assistant coach Randy Ayers to succeed Brown in 2003 and promptly fired him 52 games into his first season. He hired Jim O'Brien a year later, only to inexplicably fire him a year later after O'Brien led the Sixers to the playoffs. In 2005, King brought back Sixers legend Maurice Cheeks as head coach. The wildly popular Cheeks has hardly been wildly successful, accumulating a 78-103 record (and no playoff appearances) in two-plus seasons.

King also struggled to keep the right blend of talent around Iverson. As Philadelphia's roster began to age, King plugged in mismatched pieces like Chris Webber and handed bloated contracts to Samuel Dalembert and Kyle Korver. Still, because of his close relationship with Sixers chairman Ed Snider -- who has been staunch in his support of King in recent months -- few in Philadelphia believed King, in the last year of his contract, would be let go during the season.

In Stefanski, Philadelphia is getting one of the sharpest international minds in basketball. Stefanski, credited with discovering Nets center Nenad Krstic of Yugoslavia, is considered one of the top talent evaluators in the game.

Stefanski's first order of business will be to decide the fate of Cheeks, who also is operating in the last year of his contract. Best guess is that Stefanski, who has no vested interest in this season, leaves Cheeks in place and replaces him after the season.

Second, Stefanski will have to decide the future of Andre Iguodala, who turned down a reported five-year, $57 million contract extension before the season. In this week's Sports Illustrated, I examined the question of whether Iguodala, who last season joined Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady and LeBron James as the only players to average at least 18 points, five rebounds and five assists, is a franchise player. Stefanski will have to make a similar assessment.