Brand none too happy after Sixers loss
Elton Brand made pulled no punches in discussing his disgust over not starting in second half in loss to Toronto
Brand none too happy after Sixers loss
Bob Cooney
The Sixers had given up 40 points in the paint of the 50 the Toronto Raptors scored last night in a 104-103 win. So to start the second half, coach Eddie Jordan pulled forward Elton Brand out of the starting lineup and instead inserted guard Royal Ivey.
To his credit, Jordan said after the game that "I went with a small lineup and it sort of backfired. It happens."
Brand doesn't think it should have happened in the first place.
"I don't call the shots," Brand said at his locker. "I just go out there and play the best I can. I didn't think it was my fault, but I'm easy to get pulled it seems. We weren't down enough (50-41 at the half) to switch what we've been doing in a five-game win streak. That's what we did and we paid for it."
When further questioned as to why the move might have been made, Brand said: "Maybe they're getting prepared for something else."
It is the latest saga in what has been a tedious relationship between Brand and Jordan throughout the season, one that seemed to smooth out after Brand was reinserted into the starting lineup 11 games ago. During that span, the team has gone 7-4.
Stay tuned.
EJ's gotta go— Tartan69
Comment removed.- "I went with an incompetent coach and it kind of backfired. It happens."— dasher
- Comment removed.
- Jordan is terrible.— frankenslade
Tedious means boring. Have you no editors?- Brand sucks anyway..if anything start Jsmith in his place. The biggest BLACK WHOLE on the team is Brand. He gets the ball and puts his head down for like 3-4-5 sec and shoots. Passes only when he is triple teamed..sometimes. 3 guard lineup of by Jordan sucke. Starting lineup Lou, Iggy, Thad, JSmith, Dalambert. Why not? We won in the 4th with Lou,Ivey,Iggy,JSmith.... that was without Brand and Green. Better ball movement. Totally agree with fire Jordan.— Vsta7
- You know when you meet that guy at the end of the bar who thinks he can coach the team better than the actual coach, with Eddie Jordan as your coach, the guy at the end of the bar may actually be right.— AreaMan
- shut up with the Josh Smith already. There is no player that consistently flourishes with this idiot of a coach on this team. The Sixers are a black hole and nobody in their right mind would come play here for a bigger chump of a GM. Ed Snider needs to fix this mess before he loses more money.— CallerNo9
- @goexplorers: Have you no dictionary? Tedious means, more specifically, "tiresome because of length or dullness: boring," which is not an inaccurate descriptor for the relationship between Brand and Jordan.— beegee73
- Jordan is terrible and incompetent. But these words don't convey just how frighteningly strange is decisions are on a regular basis.— riprepulski
- The Sixers have some talent on this team...but they are all playing for themselves...guys constantly griping about minutes, who starts, getting subbed out of the game. Letting Andre Miller go was a huge mistake. He ran the show on the court. Without him, it's chaos out there and it's every man for himself. Stefanski screwed that one up royally. You don't invest all that money in Brand and Iggy and then dump your PG. Then, you've got Jordan who can't figure out his rotations and has given the players no consistent roles. He's clearly lost the players. They would have been better off keeping Cheeks as coach.— JimG
- beegee73: I sense that you might be the author. Call me when such "tedium" can be "smoothed out," as the article claims it had been. Don't forget, you defined it as something long and dull (hence, smooth).
- goexplorers is right about quality. also, the score of the game is wrong too in this clip. quality asurance is lacking but don't blame the writers. just not enough resources and dough to catch all the errors.— cxl72
- the players may be unto themselves, but it's up to the coach to build the team spirit. I'm not close enough to the situation to make bold statements about them, but just have a hunch that this team doesn't respect this coach. He needs to go.— retzlaff
Bob Cooney has been at the Daily News for more than 20 years, working in the sports department for the past 15. This is his third season on the Sixers beat. He has covered just about everything, but mostly college basketball, where he was the La Salle beat writer for six seasons. E-mail Bob at cooneyb@phillynews.com and follow him on Twitter.
