The Philadelphia 76ers talk a lot about creating a winning ‘culture’ but, from the outside, it appears they are more interested in recruiting Boy Scouts than NBA players with a huge desire to win.
The Philadelphia 76ers this past season may have had a clunky lineup and vastly underperformed from their preseason championship aspirations. However, there is one category no one can deny they might lead the NBA in: nice guys
If you think about it, there is not a single player who was on the 76ers roster who one could call a bad guy, or a troublemaker or a clubhouse lawyer. (Note: Mike Scott was baited into that fight at the Eagles game and we still consider him a super nice guy.)
A lot of Sixers are active in their community, give a lot to charities, and are quite friendly to fans. They were a bunch of good guys.
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But that might have turned out to be a major problem, and maybe an underlining reason why the Sixers flopped so spectacularly in the playoffs. You may have heard the famous saying (first by Leo Durocher and more recently by Green Day: Nice guys finish last.
Michael Jordan, as well as LeBron James, were well-known for getting on teammates’ cases if they were not performing in a way that, in their mind, would help them win a championship. They saved their niceness for sneaker commercials.
The 76ers talk so much about establishing a ‘culture’ you would think they were putting together a Philharmonic rather then a NBA basketball team.
Culturally, being unable able to shoot (or have a desire to shoot), dribble, play defense or make a pass was apparently no problem in culturally fitting in with the 76ers.
Being the type who was vocal about the team needing to work on things to win: THAT was a problem.
Jimmy Butler has made no secret he expects his teammates to play as hard and to care about winning as much as he does — or they will hear about it. He lit into Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins for their poor habits in Minnesota, smoothing his exit to Philadelphia last season as Minny management backed the young max-contract players.
Of course, without Butler, the Timberwolves bombed this season, traded Wiggins, and have the No. 1 pick in the 2020 due to their horrible record. Who was right?
Although nothing near his feud with KAT and Wiggins developed during his time with the 76ers, Butler’s personality still rubbed coach Brett Brown the wrong way.
Brown was such a ‘players coach’ he has been accused of coddling his players, particularly Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. Butler and Coach Coddles had obvious philosophy differences, so Brown made it known during the offseason that, while he would accept a Butler return, he would not be thrilled about it.
Out went Butler, in a trade that brought super nice guy Josh Richardson from Miami. Butler could stir up all his usual trouble with the Heat, they figured. He was certainly not the type of player who would, say, lift his team to the Eastern Conference finals.
It has been discovered that Butler was not the only star player with a strong personality the Sixers rejected.
Keith Pompey of the Inquirer recently wrote that when Olympic gold medal guard Kyle Lowry was approaching free agency in 2017, the coaching staff met to consider if they should go after him. A former standout at Northeast and Cardinal Dougherty High Schools as well as Villanova University, one would assume Lowry would consider a bid from his hometown team.
A guard who can handle the ball, shoot, pass and play defense was certainly something the Sixers could use. But Lowry was also known as a guy who, well, did not always act as a nice guy.
As Pompey put it:
"The coaching staff had a meeting about free-agent candidates. According to multiple sources, only 1½ of the 12 coaches in the room were in favor of signing Lowry. Head coach Brett Brown wasn’t in favor of signing him. According to a source, there were concerns about coaching someone with Lowry’s brash, tell-it-like-it-is personality."
Lowry ended up re-signing with Toronto, where he won an NBA title in 2019.
With a few exceptions (Jahlil Okafor), Brett Brown had to deal with few problematic players. He took over at the start of ‘The Process’ when everyone was basically on their best behavior since they were barely holding on to an NBA career. Bad players with attitudes get cut fast.
He obviously did not want to deal with any ‘tudes as the team improved. Players could ignore Brown’s public plea to shoot the basketball (you know who), but to openly challenge a play in a team film session (like Butler did in Portland) was apparently a ticket out of Philly.
So, basically, Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry did not fit the ‘culture’ of the 76ers. How are they doing? How did the Sixers do without them?
Exactly.
Most team’s are a mixture of personalities. Heck, the Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls both won championships with Dennis Rodman, the biggest attitude problem of all-time.
The 76ers do not need to actively go out and find a player who will yell at Embiid about getting in shape or Simmons to take a darn jump shot, but they should not shy away from getting a player who would.
General manager Elton Brand needs to ask himself a question as the offseason begins: If players like Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry can not fit in with the 76ers due to its culture, maybe the culture needs to be changed?