to the 1983 NBA championship. The move was also praised by Sixers star Allen Iverson, who worked with Cheeks during his run as Sixers' Assistant Head Coach. However, he missed the playoffs in each of his first two seasons. Frustrations began to grow with Sixers veterans Allen Iverson and Chris Webber, who were not happy with the team's direction. During the 2006–07 season, Iverson would be traded to the Nuggets and Webber would be released, leaving Cheeks with one of the youngest teams in the NBA. On February 20, 2007, the 76ers extended Cheeks' contract one year despite his losing record as coach. At the beginning of the 2007–08 season, expectations were low and the 76ers were picked to finish last in the Conference by many prognosticators. However, the Sixers clinched a playoff berth with a win over the Atlanta Hawks on April 4, 2008. It was their first postseason appearance since 2005, as well as the first in the post-Iverson era. However, they were eliminated by the Detroit Pistons, 4–2. Even with this elimination, many fans considered this to be a successful season, considering that the Sixers were 12 games under .500 in early February and went on to have a 21–7 run that led them to the playoffs. The Sixers started out the 2008–09 NBA season 9–14, despite their signing of Elton Brand and re-signing of Andre Iguodala during the off-season. Due to their slow start, the 76ers fired Cheeks on December 13, 2008. On August 14, 2009, he was hired as an assistant coach for the Oklahoma City Thunder. On June 10, 2013, Cheeks agreed to become the head coach of the Detroit Pistons. On February 9, 2014, the Detroit Pistons relieved him of his head coaching duties and replaced him with John Loyer on an interim basis for the remainder of the season. The move came after owner Tom Gores suggested that the Pistons were "better than our record" and weren't playing "at their maximum"–a veiled criticism of Cheeks. On June 29, 2015, Cheeks returned to the Thunder as an assistant coach. On November 14, 2020, Cheeks was hired by the Chicago Bulls as an assistant coach following the team's hiring of Billy Donovan. Honors and awards On September 7, 2018, Cheeks was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player. NBA career statistics Regular season |- | style="text-align:left;"| | style="text-align:left;"| Philadelphia