Philadelphia 76ers: Brett Brown named interim head of basketball operations
With Bryan Colangelo now gone, Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown has been named the team’s interim head of basketball operations moving forward.
On a day that will forever live on in infamy, Bryan Colangelo, the Philadelphia 76ers‘ embattled general manager, officially announced his resignation in a press release by managing partner Josh Harris, leaving the team free to move forward and tackle the offseason without a dark cloud hovering over the organization.
While this is obviously great news, as The Ringer‘s shocking expose on Colangelo’s propensity to use a small legion of secret Twitter accounts to do his bidding effectively erased the decades of goodwill he’d amassed over his career in the front offices of Toronto, Pheonix, and most recently Philly, the press release also dropped a major piece of news that’s getting far less coverage: Brett Brown has officially been named the Philadelphia 76ers’ interim head of basketball operations.
That’s huge.
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After leading the team through one of the worst stretches in basketball history from 2012-2017, winning less than 20 games in three consecutive seasons, Brown was finally given a competitive roster highlighted by future stars like Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid, veteran role players like Marco Belinelli, Ersan Ilyasova, and J.J. Redick, and young, ascending talent like T.J. McConnell, Dario Saric, and Markelle Fultz, and swifttly broke the team’s playoff drought to the tune of a 52-30 record, securing a third seed, and home court advantage for the playoffs.
While we all know that the team was eventually bumped in the Eastern Conference Semifinals by the Boston Celtics, it’s clear that Brown knows how to coach, and given a chance to pick out the ingredients for his meal, he could make the team’s 2018-2019 product even better.
Or, it could turn out like Chip Kelly‘s now infamous tenure with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Now granted, I doubt Brown will be allowed to make major, franchise-altering moves like trading away the team’s best player (Simmons) for a former pupil (lets say Spurs backup Patty Mills) or release an outspoken star (Embiid) due to “gang ties”, but this move not only signifies that the 76ers ownership group has full confidence in Brown’s ability to lead the ship but also trust his eye as a talent evaluator.
As one of the best developmental coaches in the entire NBA, Brown has done some pretty incredible things in his tenure with the team, even if most of them go unnoticed, like developing McConnell into a legitimate NBA point guard (even being courted by LeBron James at one point), or transforming Simmons into a 6-foot-10 point guard.
And most importantly, he’s kept his team competitive regardless of the team’s record.
Say what you will about the doldrums of The Process, but the 76ers almost always lost because of a lack of talent and experience, not a lack of effort. This commitment to personal excellence is a big reason why Brown has remained with the team even though he currently owns a 31 percent career winning percentage over 410 games: Brett Brown is a great leader of men.
Though he’s never been given an opportunity like this before, an opportunity that is becoming less and less common in the modern NBA, Brett Brown is the perfect man to lead the 76ers into the offseason while they search for a new GM.
With players like Belinelli, Reddick and Ilyasova personally name dropping Brown as a reason why they decided to come to Philly over seemingly better offers, it’s clear that his presence with the team and contagious energy is appreciated around the league, and could serve as a major boon in the free agent process, as well as with evaluating prospects in the lead up to the draft.
Next: Philadelphia 76ers save offseason with Bryan Colangelo finally out
After once having to deal with scores of fans publically calling for his own resignation, Brett Brown has swiftly transformed the Philadelphia 76ers into one of the best young teams in the NBA, and now, with the elevated position as the team interim head of basketball operations, he’s the perfect man to lead the team into their most important offseason in years.