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Cool-headed Markelle Fultz a star Sixers fans can count on | Marcus Hayes

Markelle Fultz appears to be the steady hand the Sixers needed, and he has fans expecting big things.

NEW YORK - The No. 1 pick was ready, seated, Sixers hat pulled down tight, answers ready.

But the microphone wouldn't work.

And the backup mic wouldn't work.

The third mic worked, but the cord was too short.

Technicians scrambled. The emcee sweated.

Markelle Fultz stayed cool.

"It's all good," he said. "It's all good."

That was how the first 75 seconds of Fultz's first NBA press conference unfolded: everything going wrong, Fultz calm amid it all.

Anyone who watched the Sixers botch dozens of late-game chances over the past four seasons knows the NBA's worst team needs a steady hand. They added that, finally, when they drafted Fultz.

It's fortunate for Fultz that he's ready to help right now. There is no curve for Markelle Fultz.

[Markelle Fultz proved his mettle at famed DeMatha High School.]

He won't have the honeymoon that injury afforded Nerlens Noel, then Joel Embiid, then Ben Simmons. He won't be allowed a Process Year like Jahlil Okafor had. Noel, who couldn't shoot, had one after his year of injury absence, and Embiid's 31-game honeymoon raised expectations for him and the fanchise beyond most people's wildest dreams. Simmons would have had one, too, as a power forward converting to guard.

Not Fultz.

For the first time since Sam Hinkie began his painful process 4 years ago, the Sixers drafted a just-add-water player, complete and healthy and talented, expected to win immediately and expected to win it all sooner than later. Bryan Colangelo traded up to No. 1 to take Fultz in front of a gaggle of other guards who would have been available at No. 3, any of whom would have allowed Colangelo to save the conditional first-round pick it cost to land Fultz.

Fultz is fine with all of that.

"I'm looking forward to going in there and giving it my all," Fultz said, "and hopefully changing the program around."

The program won 28 games last season, which, incredibly, was almost triple the total of the season before. The faithful are growing impatient; faithful like Process couple Jordan Ireland and Ivan Michalovic, both 20, both from Garnet Valley, Pa., and both in attendance at the Barclays Center.

"I'm a Process guy. I've trusted all the way," said Michalovic, a junior swimmer at Seton Hall. "That trade to get up to No. 1 for the No. 3 and that protected Lakers pick next year was really smart."

It was brilliant, if it works, and works quickly.

"I think that, with our young core, in 3 or 4 years we have a really good chance of finally bringing home a championship for the first time in a long time," said Michalovic, who wore an Embiid jersey. Really, stick Embiid and Simmons and Fultz together and it could happen at any time."

That's the reality now. Even Processors have started the clock ticking.

[What they're saying about the Sixers picks after Fultz.]

It would be the first NBA title for Michalovic and Ireland, who were 14 years from being born when Doc, Mo and Moses visited the promised land. Ireland has a more enducated perspective on the draft . . . and the game. She's a backup shooting guard who just finished her sophomore year at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and who just discovered the depth of the Processors' intensity.

"I've started to follow Sixers fans on Twitter recently," said Ireland, who wore a Sixers T-shirt. "I know the basic parameters of basketball, and following Sixers Twitter is insane."

Her scouting report on Fultz, a 6-5 hybrid: "He'll be a better two."

Whether he plays point guard or shooting guard, he'll be just what the Sixers need: a mature and retiring presence opposite Embiid's self-promotion; a suitable complement to Dario Saric's flighty improvisation; a traditional balance for Simmons in the backcourt.

He's calm, cool and always ready.

Mike Jones, Fultz's coach at DeMatha High, pointed to a play Fultz made as a senior against Chaminade Prep and Jayson Tatum, whom the Celtics took with that No. 3 pick. DeMatha trailed by two points and Chaminade nearly forced Fultz to turn the ball over. Fultz recovered the ball near halfcourt in the ensuing scramble with just 3 seconds to play.

"Most kids would have chucked it at the rim," Jones said. "Not Markelle. He knew he had time. He found a teammate streaking down the middle for an easy layup."

That's the kind of play that warrants the No. 1 pick.

It's the kind of play that puts Fultz ahead of the curve.

hayesm@phillynews.com

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