Sixers players praise coach Brett Brown for his enthusiasm
Even amid all of the losing this season, players say Brett Brown remained positive and upbeat and cared about them.
THE 76ERS season ended Wednesday, many will say mercifully, after 169 days. The team won only 18 of the 82 games in a season that included a 17-game losing streak to open the season, the dealing of the reigning rookie of the year and two first-round draft picks (Joel Embiid and Dario Saric) not in uniform.
But if you're keeping score, it should read like this: Brett Brown 169, Days 0.
Whether it was after a lopsided loss or a nailbiting one or in the middle of a long winless streak, Brown swallowed hard, pumped his fist and said to all who would listen, "Let's attack tomorrow."
His players listened and they attacked. Yes, most are fighting for their NBA lives, so taking things easy shouldn't be a thought. But in reality, going to a gym when you're winning under 22 percent of the games isn't exactly easy. Yet, the players' energy never dipped. While most teams in the middle of a long season would rush out of the gym once practice was completed, this team stayed and played and played, and played some more.
On the road after a morning shootaround, trying to get players to an awaiting bus was like trying to get a kid out of the pool on a hot summer day. Their energy and enthusiasm simply mirrored their coach.
It isn't so much that Brown believes that's the way he needs to coach, it's more that it is the type of person he is. He talks to players about everything. World events often led the discussions at practices. When Nelson Mandela died in December, that dominated the talk the next morning.
"It's more than just basketball," Luc Mbah a Moute said. "Sometimes we just get caught up in the game, but we're still human beings, we still have to live. We're not just basketball players, and I think that he does more than just draw X's and O's. I think his personality just embraces everybody. Everybody kind of feeds off of him. He's not a yeller, he's more like a teacher. He works with guys, he develops guys, he's patient. I thought he's been great. My short experience here is probably the best experience I've had with a coach. I think he's a very, very good coach."
Brown takes the time to know as much about the person as the player. The relationship is player/coach when it has to be, more like father/son other times. He is an open book, his thoughts never hidden. With the rosters he has been given, he kept telling his players they have a unique opportunity to audition for a job, whether here or elsewhere.
"I think it's a coach's biggest fear when you know you're losing your team and your voice doesn't matter, and there's not discipline in your practices or your program," Brown said. "We don't have any of that. That's my biggest fear as a coach. So to go through the last 2 years and lose at the volume of [games] that we have lost and to walk into that locker room and see sorrow when they've lost and shaking everybody's hands . . .
"The last words out of their mouths was that we're going to have a kick-ass summer. We're going to invest time. We're going to have a great summer. That means something to me. When you say after 2 years, 'Where are we?' there's so much going on behind our record. I love coaching those guys, because they gave their best effort."
Brown has the resumé - 12 years with San Antonio and a part of four titles - but to young players, that doesn't hold up long. It is more about the here and now, and Brown killed those days.
"We all just have fun together, playing the game hard," Robert Covington said. "We go into each and every game to have fun and play hard, and it's because of coach. He's very contagious. He has such a positive attitude in there, doing what he does and keeping us positive. That's why we take care of ourselves. We have so many personalities that we all just come together with coach and then we go out and play hard. We've gone through so much as a team, and coach has done a great job of keeping us all together."
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