Sixers hire Brett Brown
Spurs assistant Brett Brown accepted the Sixers' coaching offer on Monday, according to multiple sources close to the situation. Brown will receive a four-year deal.
Brett Brown is the 76ers' head coach.
The former San Antonio Spurs assistant accepted the Sixers' coaching offer on Monday, according to a multiple sources close to the situation. Brown will receive a four-year deal.
The 52-year-old becomes the team's eighth head coach since Larry Brown resigned after the 2002-03 season.His hiring comes as no surprise. Brown has been the candidate the Sixers coveted to replace Doug Collins, who resigned on April 18. He takes over a team that finished 34-48 this past season and appears to be seriously rebuilding.
The Sixers traded Jrue Holiday, an all-star point guard, and acquired the rights to rookie center Nerlens Noel in a deal with the New Orleans Pelicans on draft night.
They also received the Pelicans' 2014 first-round pick, which is protected from picks one through five, and a second-round pick (42d overall) in this year's draft.
The Sixers also acquired Royce White, who has an expiring contract, and the rights to Turkish star Furkan Aldemir from the Houston Rockets for future considerations. And the team claimed two former Rockets, guard James Anderson and center Tim Ohlbrecht, off waivers.
Brown should bring a winning attitude to an organization expected to struggle.
Brett Brown joined Gregg Popovich's Spurs staff in July 2002 as an assistant coach/director of player development. He moved to the bench as an assistant coach before the 2006-07 season.
The Spurs have won three NBA titles during his tenure. They just missed out on a fourth, losing in Game 7 of the NBA Finals to the Miami Heat in June.
Brown's seasons as director of player development in San Antonio would be a huge benefit for a youthful Sixers squad. While they have huge upsides, rookies Michael Carter-Williams and Noel also have huge bust potential. So the next coach must be a good developer of talent.
Brown had a hand in the development of NBA all-star point guard Tony Parker, whose scoring average went from 9.2 to 15.5 during the first season he worked with Brown.
Before the Spurs, he coached 14 seasons - nine as a head coach - in the Australia National Basketball League. Brown also coached the Aussies' national team to a seventh-place finish in the 2012 London Olympics.
Brown, Boston Celtics assistant Jay Larranaga, Chicago Bulls assistant Adrian Griffin, and Atlanta Hawks assistant Kenny Atkinson were in New York last week for second interviews with the Sixers. The four met with Sixers managing owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer.
Sixers assistant Michael Curry, a holdover from Collins' staff, was also in the running for the job