Brown loves him some Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON – Brett Brown has lived in Australia for many years and coached in international championships and Olympics, so there are few places around the globe that the Sixers coach hasn't seen. Still, it's the city that sits just a couple of hours south of Philadelphia that gets Brown's always-running motor even more revved.

An avid runner, Brown picks running along the Potomac River in Washington as one of his favorite spots, and concedes that now that he is older and wiser, everything about our nation's capital piques his interest.

"I've always been remotely interested," Brown said. "I think that when (Barak) Obama bursted onto the scene I felt like it was historical. I felt like I was living in a period of time that the first African-American president was about to be named. I thought his ability to talk to the public was jaw dropping. I felt like it was clear before he was elected – forget what party you're most affiliated with – you just sensed that something historical was taking place.

"So it went into overdrive for me then. It coincided with my times with Pop (Gregg Popovich), who is very, very interested in all of this. I think living overseas for 17 years you look backwards and you look at the United States differently than when I was raised here. There is a global perspective and a global feel you have on how the world works and the collision of Obama and 17 years overseas and just getting older and a little bit more curious is the reason."

Last season, the Sixers were able to make a trip to the White House. Thursday, they were supposed to visit the Pentagon, but that plan was scratched because of delays getting out of Philadelphia.

"We were very disappointed to not go to the Pentagon," Brown said. "We had a trip organized through the White House and the NBA. As our plane was delayed in Philadelphia, you kept looking at your watch wondering at what point do we have to cancel this very cool trip.

"When you start studying who really is in the Pentagon – the branches of our military, the archives of information that is stored there – nobody really knows how many floors there are. There is evidently 17 1/2 miles of a circumference of the fence. There is telephone wiring that would go around the circumference of the earth 4 1/2 times. All the secrecy and the privacy and the United States security is housed there. And we were going to go visit and we missed that opportunity because of some technical difficulties of an airplane. I like sharing that type of experience with my players, old or young. We were disappointed not to be able to do that."

Brown loves talking current events with his team. He enjoys watching his young players learn about the likes of Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela and the hardships they faced. It's more than basketball with Brown. It's life lessons.