During the offseason, that long, lifeless, soul-crushing offseason, ESPN ranked the players in the NBA from 1 to 500. The guy I recently described as being crucial to the Sixers chances this series was ranked #500.

Doing the math (15 players per team, 30 teams), ESPN was essentially saying Lavoy Allen shouldn't be in the league.

Now, to get this out of the way, they weren't alone. Here at Liberty Ballers, none of us were thrilled with the pick, including me. I knew he had talent, but me being upset at the pick was a combination of not believing he had mentality to take advantage of his talent (which Doug Collins himself questioned in the beginning of the season) and that I thought they could get Allen undrafted if they wanted him (which was still probably true).

That being said, Allen was far and away exceeded my expectations and using the pick on him and guaranteeing he would be on the Sixers roster has clearly been the right move.

We're not the only ones doing a mea culpa.

Henry Abbott caught up with Lavoy to to apologize for the ranking. And Lavoy handled it with the utmost class.

Allen: If I asked you who 482 was, do you know who that was?

ESPN: I have no idea.

Allen: But you know who number 500 was, though, right?

ESPN: I do. I do.

Allen: I should thank you guys.

Read the full transcript here. It's short, but good.

Kudos, Lavoy. Both for your performance that proved us wrong and your class in handling it.

I know yesterday was the anniversary, but if I recall correctly, 12-year-old Levin was still too distraught over the Round One loss to the Boston Celtics to watch any sports that day anyway. (72 points from Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker? Come on.) So today we will celebrate the ten years since Allen Iverson said those infamous words. We talkin' bout practice, man.

Now I'm not going to dissect each of these beautiful words (ESPN did it), and I'm not going to count the number of times "practice" is said (CBS did), and I'm not the one who asked the initial question, so I've got none of that first person insight that Neil Hartman does. What made this the best was that Allen simply didn't get it.

He was absolutely BAFFLED by the idea of practice. He just could not comprehend any way in which practicing would help his game. Not only his game, but his teammates' games. He just did not get it. And then the reporters in the room can no longer hold their giggles, and it only fuels him. This isn't a planned attack from somebody like Shaq or Terrell Owens. And this isn't a post-game frustration moment like Denny Green, Herm Edwards, or Jim Mora.

Call him a thug, but don't use this as an example. This isn't malice or agenda. This is a guy who just didn't get it. It was his manifesto. Not only is it the most quoted sports-related line of all time, but it follows around his career like a big hilarious asterisk. People who aren't basketball fans know this press conference. My girlfriend, my nephew since he was 3, my mom nearly has it memorized. That sort of candid ignorance from the reigning MVP just doesn't come around ever. It's like the Jerry Maguire epiphany and the Donovan McNabb overtime tie thing and the George Bush immediate book-reading response to 9/11 all rolled into one cornrowed 5'10 guard on a podium with a hell of a mouth.

Iverson, I've contended, is the single most unique basketball player of all time. That doesn't make him the best, or really anywhere near the best. There were as many flaws in his game as there were strengths. And that only added to how individual of a player he was. The cherry on top is this very rant, ten years ago, when everybody in the world knew what we were talkin' 'bout.

Early this season, I wrote a response to the annual GM survey, in which not a single NBA General Manager voted for Andre Iguodala as the game's best perimeter defender.

A few months later, I followed up that article with a reminder of how good Andre Iguodala is defensively.

But the bottom line is, Andre Iguodala should be considered at least a top 3 perimeter defender, regardless of who you ask.

Well, today the results for the 2012 Defensive Player of the Year were officially released, with Andre Iguodala finishing seventh, receiving one first place vote. The players ahead of Iguodala (in order): Tyson Chandler, Serge Ibaka, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett and Tony Allen. If you count LeBron as a perimeter defender, Iguodala received the third highest amount of votes among the perimeter defenders of the NBA. Win.

He finished eighth last year, but I'm okay with seventh for Iguodala this year. Personally, I would've had him a little higher, but I also think LeBron James – who finished fourth – should have won the award.

Regardless, hooray for a little recognition for Iguodala. In possibly his final season as a Sixer, he made his first All-Star appearance and finished seventh in DPOY voting.

The Sixers new owner, Josh Harris, says he expects Doug Collins to return next season, according to John Mitchell of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"He knows that he has my total support," Harris continued, "So I'm hopeful - there is no reason that I know of why Doug won't be returning next year - that would be a real surprise to me. And that would be a disappointment to me because I really want Doug back."

While this could be dismissed as owner-speak – what else is he supposed to say, on the eve of his team's playoff appearance – Harris's response prompts the questions: should Collins be back next year? And what will it mean if he returns?

To answer to first question – no. I think Doug's an interesting coach to cover, a good leader and an overall good dude, but I despised the way he's handled the team this season. Player development has been sacrificed in favor yet another mediocre record. His constant changing of the starting lineup came off as desperate. As an Xs and Os coach, he was awful, evidenced by the Sixers putrid record in close games – all he did was hand the ball to Lou Williams and tell everyone to watch on crucial possessions. And his day-to-day intensity – which was received well during year one – began to wear on the young players, to the point where they visibly quit on Collins halfway through the season.

If Harris is true to his word, and Collins does indeed return for his third season, here's what you can expect:

1. Another record around .500
2. Andre Iguodala to remain with the team.
3. Elton Brand to remain with the team.
4. Re-building pushed back yet another year.

Some records are good. This was not one of them. And now, the city of Philadelphia and Fred Carter can take the 9-73 monkey off their back because Michael Jordan and the Charlotte Bobcats monkeyed themselves to the worst winning percentage of all time. Finishing at 7-59 on the 66-game lockout-shortened season and a barely-registrable winning percentage of 0.106, the Bobcats lost to the New York Knicks tonight to secure their fate as the worst team of all time. Now MJ owns both the league's best and worst records in its history. Congrats.

'Twas a game that didn't matter at all to the Knicks. If anything, a loss would have given them a better chance at not facing the Miami Heat in the first round of the playoffs. So they weren't exactly playing their hardest. Steve Novak played 32 minutes. Jerome Jordan, 24. Josh Harrelson took 12 shots. But they outplayed the historically bad Bobcats squad that sees their team lose 23 straight games to end the season. Philadelphia native Gerald Henderson is the season leader in points with just over 15 per game (actually more than the Sixers leader, Louis Williams, had). There were a lot of things very wrong with this team. Luckily they have a 25% chance at getting Anthony Davis and a 100% chance of getting someone who could potentially become a cornerstone of the franchise with Kemba Walker and Bismack Biyombo.

But this is about the 1972-73 Sixers. The team that finished 59 games behind the Boston Celtics for first in the Atlantic Division. The team that lost their first 15 games and their last 13. The team that may have lost more games than the schedule had them playing. The team that was 4-58 (.064) up until an absurd two-week stretch where they went 5-2 including wins over Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson, Earl Monroe and Walt Frazier, Elvin Hayes, and Dave Bing. Even then, they were SO Sixers.

So congrats to Fred Carter, Leroy Ellis, Manny Leaks, Tom Van Arsdale, and the rest of the '72-'73 gang. You're not the most horrendous thing to ever happen to the world. The world makes secret toasts in your honor. The champagne tastes extra sweet tonight, 39 years later. Try not to lose any more games before you go to sleep tonight.

The date and times for the first 4 games of the Sixers vs Bulls playoff series have been announced, and are as followed (all times Eastern):

Game 1: Saturday, 1 PM (at Chicago)

Game 2: Tuesday, 8 PM (at Chicago)

Game 3: Friday, 8 PM (at Philadlephia)

Game 4: Sunday, 1 PM (at Philadelphia)

Game 5: Tuesday (if necessary, time TBA)

Game 6: Thursday (if necessary, time TBA)

Game 7: Saturday (if necessary, time TBA)

According to Michael Preston, the Philadelphia 76ers have signed Northern Illinois guard, Xavier Silas, for the final two games of the regular season.

#Sixers sign Xavier Silas for remainder of reg. season; Iguodala, Brand & Thad Young did not make trip for final 2 reg. season games to rest

— Michael Preston (@preston76) April 24, 2012

Xavier is a friend of the site. Everything you need to know about him can be found in this article I wrote back in December.

He's been putting up modest numbers for the Maine Red Claws in the D-League since being cut from the Sixers following their abbreviated training camp.

I think Xavier has what it takes to carve himself out a role in the NBA, in some capacity, on some team, and I'm glad he's finally going to get his chance Wednesday and Thursday. Who knows how much he'll play, but I'm sure he'll make the most of it.

The final two games just became more exciting for me to watch. Handing the proverbial reigns to Jrue and Evan while plugging in cheap, young guys like Silas – this is a rebuilder's dream! If only they'd been implementing this strategy for the past decade.

Congrats, Xavier! Follow him on Twitter, @xaviersilas.

Now that the Sixers have made the Playoffs, we can put on our Carnavale! hats and dance around naked the rest of the season. No one is particularly excited for the playoffs (OFFSEASON 2012!) but we can at least enjoy even more meaningless games leading up to our inevitable demise. The final two games will get that much more thrillinger with news that Andre Iguodala, Elton Brand, and Louis Williams will get some vacation time.

Andre hurt his leg (where on his leg? seemed like everywhere) in yesterday's clincher over the Nets and Sugar Bears needs to rest his paws now and again, but Lou? It feels like he's been on the team since the Land Before Time but he's only 25 and averages 26 minutes per game. Does he need to rest? No. But the idea of seeing two Bossless games prior to PLAYOFFS BOSS TIME REGGIE MILLER FIRST MILLION CLOSER is pretty exciting. Like, I don't know that I've ever been more excited.

I'm spitballing here, but a lineup of Jrue Holiday, Jodie Meeks, Evan Turner, Thaddeus Young, and Nikola Vucevic really gets me going. Expect to see a whole lot of Sam Young and Craig Brackins. Don't you wish we had a backup point guard? Me too. Somebody get Antonio Daniels on the phone. My engine's about to get super revved. The idea that I'm more excited about two games of bustacular basketball than I am for the Playoffs says something.

RELEASE THE BRACKINS.