They are the sidemen.

	With Theo Ratliff blocking three shots a game and rebounding, Philly's defense is tough.

They are the B-side of the hit single.

They are Rosencranz and Gildenstern. (Ask your mother.)

They are -- and I wince when I write this -- Allen Iverson's supporting cast.

I wince because I know how Pippen and Grant and Armstrong felt when a certain Michael Jeffrey Jordan kept using that phrase to describe them in the heyday of the Chicago Dynasty. But in Philadelphia, this season, there's a difference. Eric Snow and Tyrone Hill and Theo Ratliff and Aaron McKie don't mind that moniker at all. They embrace it.

"That does not bother us at all," says Mr. Snow, who's shooting 54 percent from the floor all of a sudden and posting plus-20 scoring nights like he does it all the time. (Before this season, he had done it exactly twice. ESPN's crack researchers came up with that one, not me.) "We all understand this league, the marketing in this league, the star status in this league. And you have to earn it. (Iverson's) earned it. He's earned the right to be called a star in the NBA, because he has the talent that he has. It doesn't bother me."

"Everybody on the team has basically been role players with the other teams they've been on," says Mr. Ratliff, second in the league in blocked shots (3.6 per game) and owner of increasingly wily offensive moves.

"I was the first rookie (in L.A.) since Magic to score 30," says Mr. Lynch, who takes on the other team's best scorer most nights, and doesn't complain. "I know if I put my mind to it I could be more of an offensive threat. But for this team to win, I have to be the defensive staple."

The Sixers were the league's only unbeaten team entering play this week because they have a core group of guys with core principles in their locker room. This is not to say they're the most talented team in the league, or are guaranteed a spot in the Finals out of the East. But a team that seemed to perpetually be on the edge, uncertain of when Iverson and Larry Brown would blow gaskets, near certain that Brown would jettison Iverson to Siberia this past summer, this first fortnight of the season has been a revelation.

Philly is locking folks up on defense (under 40 percent shooting, the benchmark for champions) while the offense has been slow to come around. And yet, in the guts of games, the Sixers are executing. As often as not, Iverson is looking for his teammates. And more often than not, they're coming through.

Contrast this to last spring's playoffs against the Pacers -- a team Philly thought it should beat. But the Sixers couldn't stop Jalen Rose or Reggie Miller, and Philly couldn't hit a shot in the fourth quarter. It left Iverson in tears on the bench.

	Iverson

	Hill

	Snow

"During the playoffs, I don't think he had that much confidence in the rest of us," Lynch said. "He talked about it, but he felt that he had to make the big shot. And the last two games (this season), he wasn't even the leading scorer on the team. You can tell he has matured. Winning games is more important than winning scoring titles."

"He felt that he had to do it sometimes for us to win," said Snow. "And now he understands that, 'hey, this is just making it easier for me.' And in the end, that's what's gonna happen. If everyone else is stepping up, he's just gonna get easier baskets and just be tougher to guard." So Snow knocks down big shots in Minnesota to preserve a road win, and Lynch keeps playing on a bum foot without mentioning it, and Toni Kukoc drifts in and out of focus, like always (to be fair, he's had back spasms throughout camp), and the Sixers don't mention anymore how terrible it is that rookie Speedy Claxton blew out his knee in the preseason.

But make no mistake: When Lynch talks about "everybody" being in the weight room, and "everybody" being on time for team meetings, he's referring to Young Allen -- who, amazingly, is still in Philadelphia. (Once again: If Matt Geiger hadn't refused to waive his 15 percent trade kicker, AI would be wowing them nightly in Detroit.) But Iverson, shaken by the near miss, has been a different person. At least for six weeks of camp and the regular season.

"Off the court, he's still the same Allen," Snow said. "But on the court, as far as when things aren't going right, pushing guys, being encouraging, yes."

"He's changed a lot," Hill says. "He don't like us talking about it, but he's changed a lot."

"He knows a lot of people had doubts in what he could do," Ratliff says. "Any time he's presented with a challenge, especially a challenge like that, he told me himself, personally, that he was definitely not gonna do anything to give people that satisfaction, to be able to say, 'Allen's doing this wrong now, Allen's doing that wrong now.' He wanted to come in with the attitude that, 'I'm gonna try to do the right thing this year, and try to do the things that coach has been asking me. And do them and hold my head up high.'"

One of those things was going to Brown and asking to share the team's captaincy with Snow. There was skepticism -- "I was kinda laughing on the inside," Hill admits -- but the little guy has been front and center.

"If I'd have known Allen would be like he is today, I don't think anybody would've considered moving him," Brown said. "He's always tried on the basketball court. It's all the other stuff. If I knew that he was gonna be on time; that he was going to come prepared to practice each day; that he was gonna be respectful of his teammates, there'd never have been any (trade) talk."

So, even though Iverson's only shooting 37 percent from the floor, he's happy. His teammates are happy. Hill and Ratliff and Lynch are shutting down opposing frontcourts (only Kevin Garnett has scored as many as 24 against them), and Geiger is close to returning. Why shouldn't Ratliff have a shot at the All-Star team? Who's the best center in the East? Remember, Dale Davis was the conference's backup last season in San Francisco.

Camp Harmony.

Until the next dustup.

But very comfortable with who they are.

"We all know we're Allen's supporting cast," Lynch says. "But Allen knows that he wouldn't get 30 shots if Eric or myself wouldn't sacrifice some of our shots, if Theo wouldn't block a shot that leads to a fast break, which Eric, most of the time, gives to Allen. We all understand that in order for this team to win ... we have to play as a team."

Around The NBA

	ALDRIDGE'S RANKINGS
	THE TOP 10 1. Philadelphia 2. Phoenix 3. Portland 4. L.A. Lakers 5. Utah 6. Cleveland 7. San Antonio 8. Sacramento 9. New York 10. Indiana THE BOTTOM FIVE 25. Seattle 26. Milwaukee 27. Washington 28. Chicago 29. Atlanta

	Smith