Brand teeming with class on and off court

THE WORK STOPPAGE had caused the NBA season to start just after the Christmas holiday in 2011, and the 76ers began it by winning 10 of their first 13 games. Game 27 had the Los Angeles Clippers visiting the Wells Fargo Center, just a day before the Sixers were going to begin a stretch of eight games in 18 days with seven of them on the road. With a regular-season schedule that would include just 66 games, each contest held almost the same importance as an NFL game.

On this particular night, the Sixers had mostly controlled the game, before a 14-2 run by the Clippers gave them a 68-63 lead midway through the final quarter. With that five-point lead, forward Blake Griffin appeared to have an easy path to the basket, and the crowd anticipated another rim-rattling dunk from the power forward. But just as Griffin loaded up, the huge paw at the end of Elton Brand's long arm came crashing across his forearms. It wasn't a dirty play, just a hard one. It was a needed jolt for Brand's team. It was also his way of telling Griffin that you don't slow down to put on a show in an important and close game.

The Sixers wound up losing that one by a point, dropping to 18-9, when Chris Paul made an unbelievable, step-back jumper from the foul line to win it. Following the game, dejected players had hastily left the locker room as there was a plane to catch for the following night's game in Cleveland. Standing at his locker in the back right of the room stood Brand, professionally waiting to give reporters his thoughts on the game, knowing full well that he wasn't the only one who had a job to do that night.

That night summed up what Elton Brand was all about during his 17-year career in the league, which he announced was ending following Friday's final preseason game in Miami.

Brand was a bull on the floor, a total professional off it. He would pull a reporter aside if he had questions on a story written about the team, and the next day go out of his way to admit he had been too judgmental or want to further discuss his thoughts. He is what we all aspire to be as a professional, a son, a husband. Not because he's leaving after 1,058 career games that included 16,827 points, over 9,000 rebounds, almost 2,200 assists and 1,828 blocks, which is 20th all-time in NBA history, but because it's the truth.

His accomplishments are pretty impressive when you consider his listed height of 6-8 is probably close to three inches too generous (perhaps he was measured by the same people who listed Charles Barkley as 6-6). But if Brand had been in any other profession, his praises would have been sung just the same.

Signed by the Sixers to a maximum contract in 2008, fans looked at Brand as the player who could finally put the team into contention after years of trying to recover from the post-Allen Iverson era. But the Duke product was coming off a torn Achilles', and suffered a shoulder injury early in his first season in Philly. His four years in his first stint in Philly weren't what the fans or Brand envisioned, though his final season did conclude with a Game 7 loss in Boston in the conference semifinals. He returned in the middle of last season as a "hands-on consultant" to help a locker room filled with NBA toddlers.

"I am definitely going to be around (the team)," said Brand, nattily dressed after practice and surrounded by his sweaty teammates. "They'll reach out to me. We all have each other's phone numbers. I am definitely going to visit them. We have a saying, 'That's what we work on.' So they're going to hear me screaming that from the crowd. I am definitely going to support them any way they need it."

Brand, 37, his wife Shahara, their son, Elton, and daughter, Mahala, have settled in this area and plan to put down roots.

"When I came to coach in Philly, I knew very well who he was, from our connection at Duke," said Doug Collins, who coached Brand for two years here and whose son, Chris was an assistant coach at Duke just after Brand fled to the NBA. "He is a very, very proud man and wanted to prove himself to Philly after a tough first season. There is a toughness about him, a quiet toughness. You can watch the NBA and tell there are guys that other players don't want to mess with. Elton is certainly one of those guys.

"He's a pro's pro. If you told me I had to go into any kind of competition in life, Elton Brand would be the first person I would choose to be with me."

Which is exactly why the Sixers brought him back in the middle of last season; to help walk the young talent through the rigors of NBA life and lend an unmatched professionalism to the locker room.

"Coach (Mike Krzyzewski) would always mention to me at Duke how great Elton was," said Duke product and Sixers center Jahlil Okafor. "I had a ton of fun being around him and he was always somebody I could talk to about anything. Rarely was it about basketball, but about life in general. And I've seen other guys do the same. I would love to have the long career that Elton had."

"He's as elite and classy as anybody that I have ever coached," said Brett Brown. "He's got the ingredients that just make him, I just feel like, highly attractable down the road (in the league). Surely he's got stuff to offer after all this is done. Compassionate, hard-working, educated, real tough. He was a great example for our locker room."

After he shook hands with teammates and media following his announcement, Brand took time to watch his son, Elton, impressively shoot baskets. Just eight, he already possesses the range of his father.

"I can't wait to watch him and my daughter grow up," Brand said. Asked if he'd be the mentor for his son, Brand said: "Just from a distance. I'll let the coaches coach him."

Class all the way.

@BobCooney76

Blog: philly.com/Sixersblog