Star crossed

Advice to the good basketball fans of Philadelphia: Don't fall for the propaganda. Your team is about to get worse.

If the 76ers get better over the next few years, it won't be because of the players they have gotten, or will get, for Allen Iverson. It will be because the team has entered the Greg Oden Sweepstakes, which it was already involved in with the disgruntled star in the lineup. But the deal with Denver itself? The 76ers lost. NBA teams that trade superstars always do.

This isn't the NFL, where the Cowboys traded their way into three Super Bowls by dumping Herschel Walker on the Vikings. This is the NBA, where 50-plus years worth of history teaches us that when a team trades a first-ballot Hall of Famer for a package of some sort, that team has never gotten the better of the deal. The advantage has always gone to the team acquiring said superstar.

There have been seven such deals involving six players (Wilt Chamberlain was dealt twice), and that's without including the Bill Russell maneuver, which speaks for itself. If you're a 76ers fan, the following will make for grim reading. But if you're a 76ers fan, you should know what to expect. This is a Philly team's fifth superstar deal, and your team's predictable record in these matters is 2-2.

Deal No. 1 -- 1/15/65. San Francisco trades Wilt Chamberlain to the Philadelphia 76ers for Paul Neumann, Connie Dierking, Lee Shaffer, and cash .

Wilt, age 28, takes the 76ers to the Eastern Conference finals, where they lose when John Havlicek steals a pass (you may have heard something about that) . . . Sixers win then-record 68, plus the championship, in 1966-67, as Wilt has his best all-around year . . . Flip side: Shaffer, the supposed key to the deal, retires on the spot. Neumann plays two years and retires. Dierking plays half a season and is traded to Cincinnati. San Francisco goes 17-63, but improves to 35-45 in 1965-66 when Rick Barry makes his debut. Deal possible only because the Warriors had Nate Thurmond ready to be turned loose. But the Warriors basically get nothing for Wilt.

Deal No. 2 -- 7/9/68. Philadelphia trades Wilt Chamberlain to the Lakers for Jerry Chambers, Archie Clark, and Darrall Imhoff .

Wilt, age 32, goes to the Finals with the Lakers in '69, and again in '70. Lakers win it all in '72 with Wilt rebounding, defending, and feeding . . . The 76ers win 55 games in '68-69, then begin four-year spiral that culminates in gruesome 9-73 season in '72-73 . . . Chambers, an utter nonfactor, is traded to Phoenix in January of '69. Clark, a great player, is traded to the Bullets in '71. Imhoff is traded in '70 for Fred Foster and -- you'll love this -- Connie Dierking. How do you like it so far?

Deal No. 3 -- 4/21/70. Cincinnati trades Oscar Robertson to Milwaukee for Flynn Robinson and Charlie Paulk .

A revived Oscar, age 31, teams with Lew Alcindor (not yet Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) to win 1971 championship . . . The Bucks average 62 wins a year before The Big O retires at conclusion of 1973-74 season following a seven-game loss in the Finals to the Celtics . . . Cincinnati averages 33 wins a year before moving to Kansas City (and Omaha) for the '72-73 season . . . Paulk misses '69-70 because of military service, plays one year for the Royals, and is traded to Chicago. Robinson plays one year in Cincy and is then traded to the Lakers just in time to be on a 69-13 team that features a record 33-game winning streak . . . Essentially, the Royals get zero for an all-time great. Scary, huh?

Deal No. 4 -- 6/16/75. Milwaukee trades Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Lakers for Elmore Smith, David Meyers, Junior Bridgeman, and Brian Winters .

Twenty-eight at the time of the trade, Kareem wins five championships (plus three other trips to the Finals) and three MVPs before retiring in 1989 . . . Smith plays a year and a half for Milwaukee before getting traded to Cleveland . . . Meyers progresses slowly over a four-year period, and just when he is starting to be a major force he quits the Bucks at 27 to work full time with the Jehovah's Witnesses . . . Bridgeman (nine years) and Winters (eight years) give the Bucks excellent service . . . The Bucks do not become a solid, contending team until 1979-80 (49-33), but have never gotten to the Finals since losing to the Celtics in 1974.

Deal No. 5 -- 5/3/74. Atlanta trades Pete Maravich to New Orleans for Dean Meminger, Bob Kauffman, and future draft picks.

Maravich, age 26, can't lift expansion New Orleans higher than 39-43, but he does make two All-NBA first teams and wins a scoring title before leaving the franchise in 1979-80 . . . Atlanta averages 30 wins a year in the first tree years P.P. (Post-Pistol) . . . Meminger plays two years for the Hawks. Kauffman plays one year and then retires. Neither team is very good, but Jazz fans have more fun watching their team lose than their Atlanta counterparts . . . Maravich is probably the most abused, misunderstood, and miscast great player in NBA history.

Deal No. 6 -- sign-and-trade on 9/15/82. Houston trades Moses Malone to Philadelphia for Caldwell Jones and a 1983 first-round pick (Rodney McCray) .

The 27-year-old Malone has an MVP season and the 76ers win the title after a 65-17 romp through the league. Houston, 46-36 in '81-82, goes 14-68 in what is universally assumed to be a dumped season for the purpose of obtaining Ralph Sampson. The Rockets eventually get to the Finals in 1986 after a 29-53 season in '83-84 produces Akeem Olajuwon in the 1984 draft. If you'd like to argue that trading Moses ensured a horrible season (and thus a 50-50 shot at Ralph in the pre-lottery, coin-flip days), then yes, it was a good deal for the Rockets. But though Jones had his value and McCray was a solid 10-year pro, the two together weren't half a Moses at his peak.

Deal No. 7 -- 6/17/92. Philadelphia trades Charles Barkley to Phoenix for Jeff Hornacek, Tim Perry, and Andrew Lang .

With the 29-year-old Barkley at his peak, the Suns immediately go to the Finals. The 76ers, already bad (35-47 in '91-92), get instantly worse, and remain so for a six-year period in which they average 24 wins. Hornacek gets traded to Utah after a year and a half. Perry, a willing banger, lasts 3 1/2 years in Philly. Lang, a career backup center, is gone after one year . . . Barkley is still laughing about the whole thing.

And now . . .

Deal No. 8 -- 12/19/06. Philadelphia trades Allen Iverson and Ivan McFarlin to Denver for Andre Miller, Joe Smith, and two 2007 No. 1s.

At 31, and with a notoriously banged-up body, can Iverson give Denver what it expects? Miller, meanwhile, is a decent point guard with little apparent competitive fire. He's almost the anti-Iverson. Smith, a former No. 1 overall pick, is just a juicy expiring contract to the 76ers. The picks? Who knows? They'll probably be in the 20s. The key here is for the Sixers not to jeopardize their standing in the Oden Sweepstakes, because that's the only way this deal will ever make them a better team.

The smart thing for Philly to do is take their 18-64 like a man and then start praying they get lucky. I'd have a lot more respect for Sixers general manager Billy King if he'd just admit that he is borrowing from that old Houston Rockets playbook. Makes sense to me.

But if King insists on pretending this is really a good deal, we know better. NBA history contradicts him.

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is ryan@globe.com.