Why Jay Wright should leave Villanova to coach the Philadelphia 76ers

Jay Wright could be the next Philadelphia 76ers head coach. Why should he leave the familiar grounds of Villanova to join the uncertain realm of the NBA?

In every competitor’s life, a need for change arises. The kind of change that derives from a desire that winners experience between the space of contentment and conviction. For whatever that competitor has been doing for so long, a new challenge awaits over their horizon of possibilities.

Jay Wright has been an NCAA head coach since 1994. He has been at Villanova since 2001. That next level challenge awaits for Jay Wright in the NBA.

According to ESPN, the Philadelphia 76ers will be exploring the field of head coaches to replace Brett Brown, and Jay Wright is in the mix. The Sixers could go the traditional route and hire a former NBA head coach like Tyronn Lue, Mark Jackson, or Kenny Atkinson. Yet, the nontraditional choice of hiring a collegiate head coach might be the best for this unconventional team.

Why should Josh Harris grant a premium salary contract to a coach who’s never coached at the professional level? Why should Elton Brand trust Wright to steer a Sixers vessel that has endured so much turmoil the last seven years?

Comparisons

First, let’s examine some college coaches who have transitioned from amateur basketball to the pros. The doubters of Jay Wright’s jump to the NBA immediately bring up John Beilein, who did not last a full season with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He is a poor comparison to Jay Wright though, because Beilein does not have Wright’s style, demeanor, or resume. On top of that, how many NCAA championships did Beilein win compared to Wright? Exactly.

The other factor that cannot be overlooked is the team that Beilein coached —  a Cleveland team that was far past the LeBron days and a dysfunctional locker room that eventually led Beilein to calling players “thugs” during a video session. Can you imagine Jay Wright addressing his players like this? Beilein was doomed from the start. More suitable college coach comparisons include Larry Brown, Rick Pitino, Brad Stevens, and Billy Donovan.

From a ring perspective, Pitino and Donovan both won multiple NCAA National Championships like Wright. Both had success in their early NBA head coaching years. Going back to 1987, Pitino led his Knicks team, that included Patrick Ewing, to its first Atlantic Division title in a decade. With Billy Donovan, he only won two NCAA Championship rings with the Florida Gators and went on to coach the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Championship the next year. Brad Stevens is the only college coach in this bunch who did not win a title in the NCAA, but he did lead his Butler Bulldogs to back-to-back championship games when he was only 34 years old.

The final example of a successful college coach going to the NBA is Larry Brown. Winning an NCAA Championship with Kansas in 1988, Brown saw himself coaching in the pros and returned to coach in multiple cities before finally lifting the Larry O’Brien Trophy with the Pistons in 2004. The common denominator? Each of the successful coaches just mentioned either had a winning style of coaching that translated to the professional level or an NBA roster with at least one bonafide star. With Jay Wright, he would enter the Sixers organization with the luxury of both.

Reasons for Wright

The day that Brett Brown was fired, social media went into a frenzy, like stock traders on the NYSE floor in the 1980s. On Facebook and Twitter, all kinds of names were thrown out, including Jay Wright. Some welcome the idea of Wright leading the Sixers, while others question why Wright would even want to leave Villanova.

It is a legit question, and he does have a number of reasons to stay put. Currently, he is the sixth highest paid coach in the NCAA, making $4.4 million a year. However, in the pros, he could earn more. Rick Carlisle, Erik Spoelstra, Steve Kerr, and Gregg Popovich all make over $8 million per season. Coming out of Villanova as its greatest coach in history, Wright could make somewhere between his current salary and the previous coaches mentioned. If money is not a solid enough reason, perhaps the thrill of the challenge can push him to take the Sixers job?

What could be more challenging than getting Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons to reach their full potential? Both players are still relatively young and need a new coach who will hold everyone equally accountable. Wright has that cachet. The timing could be perfect, where Brett Brown’s voice was such an empty echo in the locker room toward the end, Jay Wright’s would set a new tone for the team. Even Jay Wright’s play schemes, though executed at the NCAA level, could offer more opportunities for success than what Brett Brown was able to accomplish in his years as coach.

Some say that the King of Villanova would not want to leave his castle. Well, technically, he would not. Wright would not have to change his zip code if he ended up coaching the 76ers. How convenient and auspicious it would be, for not just Wright, but his family, too. He could still be beloved by the school that gave him the keys to the kingdom, while coaching another home team, just with different colors and a new mascot.

For those who are underwhelmed at the idea of Jay Wright coaching the Sixers, look at it this way — he grew up in the area, graduated from Council Rock High School in Bucks County, and played ball in the Sonny Hill league in Philly. The Wells Fargo Center is already his home court, and he’d walk into the Sixers’ locker room wearing two NCAA Championship rings, commanding respect.

He could get a nice boost in salary while establishing a post-Process era of Sixers basketball, building a system where Embiid and Simmons flourish. With patience, hard work, and the right support from management, his name could join the halls of basketball lore, becoming only the second head coach to win at the college and professional level. If that’s not enough to convince you that he’d be a good fit to coach the Sixers, maybe it’s enough to convince him.