Philadelphia 76ers: The Exorcism of Brett William Brown

Brett Brown can finally free himself from the Philadelphia 76ers.

Brett Brown has had a good run with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Initially signed to a four-year, guaranteed contract to helm an unusual rebuild the likes of which has never, and will never again be seen in the NBA, Brown survived three separate general managers – plus his own unusual term as an interim – scores of players, and hundreds of games as one of the league’s most unusually tenured head coaches.

If Brown’s coaching career ended today, he’d have the unusual distinction of being a coach with 26 playoff appearances to his name despite having a .391 win percentage.

More from Section 215

Fun fact: It would take six(!!!) more 52-30 seasons for Brown to surpass a .500 win percentage.

When Philly was averaging three wins a month, Brown’s commitment to player development kept butts in the seats, even if tickets cost less than a hot dog at the arena. When Joel Embiid finally made his NBA debut, the coach who comforted him after his brother’s untimely passing got a ton of credit for getting him ready. And when the 2017-18 Sixers vastly overperformed and made it all the way to the second round of the playoffs, Brown parlayed it into a new contract extension – his second with the team – in the hopes that he’d be able to bring the team he shepherded for the last half-decade in for a championship landing.

But now, with the Sixers officially eliminated from the playoffs in an embarrassing, first-ever four-game sweep by the Boston Celtics, it’s all over.

For better or worse, this isn’t Brett Brown’s team. It’s not the team he cultivated from the ground up since 2013, it’s not the team he won his playoff first series with, and it’s not the team that came four bounces away from a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals last spring. With only seven of the team’s 17 players having more than a single season of experience with the team, Brown was essentially tasked with throwing together yet another contend-able squad with increasingly mismatched parts with very few interpersonal connections .

The Sixers aren’t the Celtics. They aren’t run the same. They aren’t as savvy. They aren’t Bill Simmons’ favorite team. And worst of all, they don’t have the chemistry of a team that developed together.

And soon, unlike the Celtics, the Sixers won’t have continuity at the head coaching position.

There’s no doubt about it, whether deserved or not, Brett Brown is about to be fired. Does he deserve to be? I mean, yeah, kind of. Brown has never been particularly flexible when it comes to coachings – a sharp contrast from his former mentor in San Antonio – and his occasional lapses in judgment have increasingly cost Philly when it matters most, but he’s not the reason why Al Horford is a member of the 76ers. He’s not the reason why Tobias Harris is making $12 million more than he should. And he’s not the reason why this team’s sterling future filled with promise has been dashed; left in NBA no man’s land.

Brown did trade Mikal Bridges to the Phoenix Suns for Zhaire Smith and Miami’s 2021 first-round pick, a move that set this whole mess into motion (more on that here), but he isn’t the one who traded said pick, Landry Shamet, and another first to the Los Angeles Clippers for Harris, Mike Scott, and the Dallas Mavericks’ secret weapon.

No, make no mistake about it, Brett Brown is going to get scapegoated for all of this, and will be dragged through the mud whether the Sixers fly high next season, or sputter out towards yet another rebuild. People will blame him for wasting Embiid’s cheap years, for coddling family friend Ben Simmons, and for his inability to put players in the best position to succeed. Heck, some are already suggesting that it’s Brown’s fault Jimmy Butler didn’t re-sign with Philly, an absolutely insane assertion that doesn’t pass the eye test one bit.

But soon, Brown will be free of it all. He’ll be free of the brutal scrutiny of Philly’s notoriously tough media market. He’ll be free from the Harri-Blitzer Group. Heck, he’ll be free of the #firebrettbrown tweets that pop up any time anything goes wrong in any given game.

Next. Ghosting Joel Embiid in the fourth is criminal. dark

Exorcism, noun: the expulsion or attempted expulsion of a supposed evil spirit from a person or place. Yes, technically the Philadelphia 76ers will be moving on from Brett Brown in an attempt to right a rapidly sinking ship, but really, it’s Brett Brown who will finally be freed of the evil spirit known as the Philadelphia 76ers and will finally be able to move on with his life in a (hopefully) positive environment. Maybe Brown will latch on with a team like the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he can do what he does best, coach up youngsters and overachieve with a loose, fast-paced offensive. Fortunately, history will surely look back fondly on the coach who shepherded a team through one of the weirdest rebuilds in sports history; no front office structure can take that away.