Sixers Volunteer Coach Aaron McKie Traded to Memphis

It's not every day that a coach gets traded, and it's even more rare when that coach is traded and the team he works for isn't even involved in the trade. Local guy and former Sixer Aaron McKie was traded from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Memphis Grizzlies in the Pau Gasol trade yesterday. Apparently McKie never filed his retirement papers and the Lakers were the last team he played for, so he was still their property. The Lakers needed to move him to make the salaries even out in the trade, so they signed him to a contract and then shipped him out. Grizzlies coach Marc Iavaroni, a forward on the Sixers last championship team, said that McKie will fill a player/coach role with Memphis. McKie had been working with the young guys on the Sixers, and apparently was playing a lot in practice to stay in shape. I bet McKie plays the rest of the year in Memphis, seeing limited action, and then comes back to the Sixers in a coaching role next year.

*Read Marc Narducci's Inquirer article about it here. The most interesting item from the article was that the Sixers are still paying McKie from a contract they signed him to several years ago. Aaron McKie, the Memphis Grizzlie, is being payed 7 million dollars by the Sixers this year. Gotta love Billy King.