Philadelphia 76ers Coach Brett Brown brings more than development

The Philadelphia 76ers found success. Surprisingly, few mention head coach Brett Brown when citing the team’s winning ways.

The Philadelphia 76ers are getting hot at the right time of the year.  After closing out 2017 to a 17-19 record, only the most resilient fans believed this team still “had it in them” to make a playoff run. Now, in 2018, the team has amassed a 17-8 record to claim a stake as the five-seed in the NBA Eastern Conference.  And now it’s not just the fact that the team wins, but the way they win.

This team defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland by claiming the lead and never letting up. Then, they faced a huge deficit to the Charlotte Hornets, trailing by eight points at the half and by 14 points at one point. But a huge fourth quarter rally, despite four fouls on Joel Embiid and Ersan Ilyasova, sealed the win.  That marked the 13th consecutive victory for the Sixers at Wells Fago Center.

Still, no fanfare for Coach Brown.

What’s Brown gotta do?

There is this unspoken bias in the NBA right now where the Philadelphia 76ers are concerned.  This is a team which won, wait for it, just 10 games two season previously.  Last season that win total jumped to 28. All the while this team has had to await the arrival of their marquis players. The first player was Joel Embiid. Then Dario Saric. Then Ben Simmons. This season, the long wait features top-pick Markelle Fultz. Yet there stands Coach Brown, keeping this team in high-spirits, focused on winning, and focusing on winning the right way.

Brown has a reputation for developing young talent. And when you see Embiid and Simmons play, you have to believe he has left nothing on the table. They are exceeding all expectations. But he has instilled in all his players three very important principals which they echo at any opportunity.

I.   Play with passion
II.  Win at home
III. Never take a play off

And it’s tough to put those principals into words. But there is tangible proof positive in the statements and deeds of the players that define this Philadelphia 76ers team

Play with passion

There will never be any other way to play professional sports in Philadelphia. Either play with passion or simply don’t suit up. It’s that simple.  And Coach Brown reveres the Philadelphia fan base.  This is the guy who recognizes that magic which drives Allen Iverson, Bryan Dawkins, and the score of Philadelphia greats who learned how to play from that passion, and win.

Now that the Eagles have won their first Super Bowl, Brown is channeling that passion into his own team.  Rather successfully too, I might add. This is from a head coach who has yet to win more than half of the games in any given season.

Winner at heart

And yet, he knows.

it’s the synergy of the NFL to the NBA to the NHL to the MLB which is powering the teams now. As the NBA focuses on coaches who have dominant rosters and have won year after year, I believe it’s more than an accidental oversight to exclude the Philadelphia 76ers head coach in Coach of the Year talks.

Win at home

The Philadelphia 76ers dominate at home. At 20-10, they are one of the best home teams in the NBA this season. That has not always been the case. But the need to win at the Wells Fargo Center never abated, not even in the depth of the rebuild.

Recall the feeling in Philadelphia when then-prospect Markell Fultz visited?  It was a year ago when the rumors of Fultz visiting began to surface.  And visit he did, as the Philadelphia 76ers faced the Brooklyn Nets. At the time, the likelihood was not obvious. Still, Fultz showed up and was very impressed by the fan support of a non-playoff team.

How do you like them now?

Now? The Philadelphia 76ers are a playoff bound team.  But it’s not enough just to make it to the playoffs. This team needs to succeed before the fans that supported them in the tough times. Now? The energy is a loop. The team feeds the fans who in turn feed the team.

Winning at Philadelphia is very important. If nothing else, it builds that fan fever which is all so important to the playoff home court advantage.  Coach Brown “gets” the fans in Philadelphia. In fact, he is one of the few who do.

Never take a play off

The fact is that the Philadelphia 76ers were learning how to win when they were losing… in streaks.  In fact, one of the calling cards of the Philadelphia 76ers throughout the previous seasons was their tenacity until the final buzzer. That did not just “come” to the  players. The team is young, and patched together by tryouts and more recently free agents for limited terms. That tenacity came from Coach Brown.

Tenacity is not something he fakes.

No other NBA coach does more with less

Brett Brown is not just reading from a teleprompter to aid the ticket sales. He has coached for years, and knows the secret formula for success in a blue collar city. Become family. Play hard, even in a loss. And now that he has a team which many scoffed at last season into position for a possible top-four seed in the NBA playoffs? Crickets. Noone gives Brown his due. By rights, this is a head coach who is most deserving of the NBA Coach of the Year award.

This team is not rostered with top NBA names. In fact, must of the season the team has been working with fewer than 12 healthy players. Still, this team is working towards a solid post-season appearance. While casual fans call for a coaching change at each Sixers loss, most fans who follow the team understand the challenges of this roster this season. Without Markelle Fultz, Furkan Korkmaz, and an empty roster spot for much of the season, Brown had far fewer options for his rotations.  Nobody factors that in when voting for the best coach of the NBA. But they should. If they did, Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown would be Coach of the Year for sure. And that accomplishment would signify, once and for all, that he does far more than just developing young NBA talent.