THERE WAS A time, just a few short years ago, when Larry Brown was ready to resign if Allen Iverson remained with the 76ers and Iverson was prepared to demand a trade if Brown were to stay as the coach.

No more.

Iverson, named yesterday as the NBA's Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the third time this season and the seventh time in his career, made that crystal clear in an interview appearing in the March edition of Playboy magazine.

"Now I look at him and know he's the best coach in the world,'' Iverson said in the question-and-answer session with reporter Larry Platt. "Honestly, I got a lot of respect for the guy. I love that guy. I love who he is and what he stands for. "I can't believe we used to bump heads like we did, but if it got us to where we're at right now, I'm glad we went through all of it.''

Brown was more than pleased when the comments were relayed to him after practice yesterday at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. Iverson became the first player since Utah's Karl Malone in March 1997 to be named Player of the Week in back-to-back weeks.

"That's as nice a thing as you could say about a coach,'' Brown said before leaving for New York and tonight's game against the Knicks. "I know we've been through a lot and the relationship has grown. It's an ongoing process, but I think it's like that; the things that are easy are never worth it.

"I look back on what he's done, what he's been able to achieve, and I feel really good about. I don't enjoy issues and stuff like that. That's never been fun. If he feels he's growing up and we've been helpful, it's a wonderful feeling. I think that's what all coaches would hope would happen.''

Brown said that, "over the last six or seven games, he's played probably better than at any time in his career.'' 

Coinciding with that, the Sixers have climbed to 22-21, moving above .500 for the first time since Dec. 1, when they were 8-7. Iverson has missed seven games, five after arthroscopic surgery on his right elbow, two with a sprained left thumb; the Sixers are 0-7 without him, 22-14 with him.

Included in the stretch to which Brown referred is Sunday's 29-point performance in a 93-87 victory over the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers, an electric, 47-point effort in Friday night's victory in Boston, and a career-best 58-point explosion Jan. 15 against Houston.

Iverson has scored 33 points or more in seven of the last eight games.

In that stretch, he has also hit 75 of 86 free throws. In the three games preceding the Lakers victory, he generated 119 points on 44-for-88 shooting from the floor.

"I think he's trying to do a lot of things,'' Brown said. "Are there things I'm concerned about? Yeah, I have issues with him; it's just a growing process.

"He's improved as a player, he's trying to do what's right on both ends of the court. I can see that. I really do believe the last six or seven games, he's been about as good as anybody could play.

"Even [against the Lakers], he was 10-for-29 and I'd have graded him the same as I did almost every game in this run, except for maybe the Boston game. That was a level above, a step up, even from the 58-point game. He included his teammates; defensively, he tried to do all the things we've been asking him to do.''

In the Playboy interview, Iverson deals with - among other things - the tragic shooting death of close friend Rah Langeford in Newport News, Va., about the deep, personal meanings of his various tattoos, why he does not intend to attempt to do a rap album again, and his relationship with the media.

Iverson has not forgotten the media's critical reaction to one of the songs on an album he had prepared that included violent, anti-gay and anti-women lyrics. He said the whole premise was misunderstood and blown out of proportion.

"I want to leave that chapter in my life, because other people in the media took the fun out of it,'' Iverson told the magazine.

"I'll leave it alone and won't do it again. I never wanted to do it for money. I just wanted to do it because it was special for me.''

On the media, he said: "I'll never be able to understand the media, but I think I can put up with them, I can deal with them, I can accept anything they say about me, because they've said so many things. I've just got used to it, and I try not to give them anything negative to write about me.''

On his feelings after the death of Langeford, who was shot seven times and left behind three children: "The minister at Rah's funeral said to look at your life as a book and stop wasting pages complaining, worrying and gossiping. That's some deep [expletive] right there. I just let my actions do the talking. Watch me on the court, and you tell me if that guy is good or bad. I think you can tell who I am. I think you can tell I'm trying to get better as a person, that I'm trying to be better as a person than I am as a basketball player. Believe that.''