[Wojnarowski] The Philadelphia 76ers fired coach Brett Brown, sources tell ESPN.
National Writer
Archived post. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast.
Sort by:
Best
Open comment sort options
Best
Top
New
Controversial
Old
Q&A
everyone gotta go i don’t want brett to be the scapegoat
Looks like Brand will get an opportunity to hire “his guy”
Brand isnt the decision maker
Who’s the puppet master then? Josh Harris?
There’s legit a counsel and Elton is their voice.
Lol i imagine their meetings being like the Jedi council
“Have a seat young jimmy butler”
Elton Brand:
”I am the senate”
You are on this council but we do not grant you the rank of decision maker
"And who has a better story than David Fizdale?"
Based on contracts, I’m guessing its Tobias Harris.
Bryan Colangelo
They consult the Rocky statue for all big decisions
Brett sucks a lot, man. Literally every starter, except maybe Ben, has said this season alone that Brett doesn't hold players accountable or doesn't put players in proper roles. You can GRIII to that list, too.
And Jimmy Butler, of course, who if you listen to the JJ podcast then it becomes even harder to defend Brett.
Brett should have been fired after the first loss to the Celtics in the playoffs. The same problems we had then we have now. He just got to coach all-stars.
Every non-shooter who has come here has played worse under Brett. He can only coach one scheme and he refuses to adjust anything to his roster.
He's just not a good coach. The new narrative from people who stanned him for seven years is that it's really everyone else's fault, but that's just because the process didn't have a fairy tale Disney ending like they'd hoped.
Cheer up. Look at the Raptors, Bucks, Warriors and even the Lakers who all fired their building block coaches and took huge leaps.
Brett is worse than Casey was.
A week into his Sixers tenure GR3 was like “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, nobody has bothered to tell me”. That was wild.
wow...is this really true? i believe you but just wanna see the source so i can see it in context
Comment deleted by user
Exactly. GR3 on the Warriors went from someone who couldn't buy a shot or handle a pass to a dependable scorer/defender to a wing the team would have liked to have kept in the rotation for future runs. That's why the 76ers traded for him, but to see him barely make the rotation and then look so out of place, I couldn't believe it
They traded for him and Burkes to provide shooting me bench depth. And then decided they had no use for them pretty much.
Hopefully he comes back here next year
The thing is it wasn't wild. It was remarkably on brand for Brett.
Sixers fans just don't like being honest with themselves.
Heh on "brand."
This might be dumb but who is GR3
i 100% believe he needed to be fired, but i’m just saying he can’t be the only one. the front office did a terrible job building this roster around the stars they already had in ben and joel.
Other than the obvious fuck ups of Harris and Horford, where I really questioned their decision making was when they traded Mikal Bridges on draft night. When they drafted him it was the perfect pick: 3 and D guy who went to Nova and who’s mom literally worked for the team! And then they traded him...for Zhaire Smith?? Idk if he’s ever played an NBA game. And an unprotected 1st round pick three years later when you’re trying build a team to win now?
Glad I came to this thread because I thought Elton Brand was the problem but they have a whole group making decisions.
i love mikal bridges, but at the time that wasn’t a terrible trade. hard to predict that zhaire was gonna break his foot and almost die from an allergic reaction. zhaire had a lot of upside and that pick is a good trade piece. in hindsight it’s easy to say it didn’t work out, and mikal would’ve been great for us, but i can’t be as mad about that personally as letting jj go
Mikal Bridges filled a need the Sixers still have.
Ah right I forgot about that allergic reaction thing. I guess at the time they still had Covington, but he would’ve been a good person to slide into that 3 and D spot once Cov got traded. My thing is once you have your cornerstone guys, mid to late first round draft picks should be more about fulfilling needs with solid players than taking risks on upside guys. But at least they have that pick to help them move one of those bad contracts.
No no, let’s not change that trade. I think it worked out really well
Whoever thought to give Horford that much money needs to go. Horford was starting the downslide of his career when he got to Boston, who thought giving him a super expensive deal was going ot be a good call, doubly so when you have Embiid and Harris as locked in starters.
As a raptors fan, I’m glad you recognize that Casey was not a good coach despite many saying otherwise with the record they saw. Just too many flaws that I don’t feel like getting into, but it’s one and the same. Best of luck in your search.
I respect this take. Good luck to ya'll.
r/sixers don’t like this comment
#EverybodyGottaGo
Do not let them scapegoat Brett, sure he had to go, but so does everyone else.
#EverybodyGottaGo
It's a shame they didn't fire Elton and the rest of Colangelos team first really. Agree, time for a fresh start across the board.
Colangelos are like Diabetes.
You can't stop them, YOU CAN ONLY HOPE TO CONTAIN THEM!
Its not brett browns fault
In the series against us only butler and embiid got through our defense and JJ came clutch in key moments, Yet you let butler and JJ go and kept tobias a useless dude with a crazy big contract and a old al horford with another bad contract
Those were smh moves and yet ESPN were crowning Philly the ECF champions before the season even started.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
On paper it seemed like y'all had 4 stars, little did we know...
that’s the problem, majority of these so called analysts and media lose their shit based off what they see on paper. not taking into account how the pieces were going to fit.
Whether it was time to move on or not this dude got way more shit than he deserved, or I guess others escaped the shit they deserved is a better way to put it. This changes just about nothing.
The real issues are 1) y’all traded several useful pieces for Jimmy Butler and then didn’t resign him; and 2) y’all traded for Tobias and then did choose to resign him to a ridiculous contract. Brett Brown wasn’t the main issue, he was working with what the FO gave him. Y’all had talent and depth but now y’all just have two disgruntled stars who don’t work well together and no coach.
z
Bingo. I thought it was very telling that Ben basically just ignored BB’s request. Also when I watch an after timeout play from the 6ers I’m usually left feeling confused as to what the fuck they were trying to do. The fan of chaos in me wants to see them rehire Sam as GM and hire MDA this offseason as HC. They would be entertaining if nothing else.
Lol would definitely be interesting but unless Hinkie was able to trade Harris and Horford MDA would be a terrible fit.
Trust the Process 2: MDA Boogaloo
You know you want this to happen lol. I don’t think anyone would take on Horford’s contract though and I know it’s not a feasible scenario. He still has 3/yr 25/per if I’m not mistaken and Tobi’s isn’t that great either.
According to Jimmy on the JJ pod Brett doesn't even talk during film sessions. Just plays the footage/slides silently. JJ didn't contradict him either. That's bonkers.
That's crazy HS coaches talk more in film sessions hell we did in youth basketball.
Seemed like RoCo and Sarix fit perfectly and then poof.... gone
Seriously people act like he's a moron when the pieces that his front office gave him clearly don't work together after seeing them play together all season.
A short 3 years ago...to sunnier days
Now they’re just EHHS :/
Ben
Al
Tobias
Embiid
If they win it all they will be masters of the game. The MasterBATErs
You had BETA and you went with BATE
And BETA perfectly fit because it was an inferior lineup compared to last year.
The average age of this subreddit is probably 12. So of course they went with BATE.
Comment deleted by user
Social media has truly been a gift for us fans.
The Process worked, they just made poor personnel decisions in recent years. Trading up for Fultz being the most egregious.
Might be the worst nickname in sports. We all hated it here in Philly.
Now they just have the KOPS (Korkmaz, O'Quinn, Pelle, Scott)
“Do a 180” was 3 years ago????
If you dig up past tweets, it shows the current username. "Do a 180" was in March 2020.
So...three years ago?
Fuck me, I forgot to account for the pandemic temporal shift. That’s my bad, you’re right.
Brett Brown on Elton Brand
c’mon!
Incredibly specific and accurate. Very nice.
this clip is such a gem...
Bah gawd that’s Ty Lues music
actually not a great market out there for coaches right now...who can the Sixers pick up better than brown? Lue is not a terrible choice, but he's not the greatest either
everyone pray for no Jason Kidd
Philly people have been hearing Jay Wright's name being tossed around. He has said in the past he would only make the jump to the Sixers if offered an NBA job
People have been saying Jay Wright for years. But what incentive does he have to leave?
Comment deleted by user
Jay wright has the coldest suit game in the country, he’ll never make the jump to the NBA now that coaches are basically cosplaying as radioshack employees on the sidelines. No chance to flex those new Ferragamos son
Jay Wright makes almost double what Brett was making
There’s a chance there won’t be any college sports next year that’s the incentive
Underrated motive atm
Chance we don’t restart the NBA season for a time as well
And on the flip side, the disincentives are kinda ridiculous. He's got complete control over a top college program. Why would you want to leave that for whatever is going on in the Sixers org?
I can't imagine any good coach coming into an organization where the whole Front Office should be on thin ice. There's no way anybody survives a year similar to this.
yeah that's the big one. having to answer to somebody that has zero control over your personnel is honestly fucking stupid. I'm sure jay is a smarter guy than that and even if he does want to jump to the NBA ranks, there is a better time and place to do it than the current iteration of the sixers.
he doesn't really have an incentive to stay after winning two national championships in the span of 3 years, i wouldn't imagine him leaving tbh but it wouldn't be outlandish if he did
That makes no sense. Why hasn't Coach K ever coached in the NBA? Many college coaches like coaching college because they have a lot more control over the program than if they were coaching in the NBA.
He won't have to move his family, his salary will certainly be raised (he "only" makes $3.5 mill/year at Villanova), and he won't have to recruit anymore.
Grew up in the Philly area (Council Rock grad) with the Sixers as his favorite team
He has accomplished everything one could in his current position. Already the greatest coach in school (& possibly Philly Big 5) history.
Only 30 NBA jobs available, not every one comes with 2 young all-stars.
Ultimately I think he stays at Nova because our front office is a mess, but I can see why the Sixers job could be enticing now to Wright.
Covid lol no college ball
interesting...don't follow college but he's with Villanova right? anyone have an opinion on him?
Comment deleted by user
great coach, a lot of attention gets paid to nova's recent runs (and rightly so) but he had the program way ahead of the curve when it came to 3 pointers and positionless basketball...
that said, it doesn't really seem like a good fit. part of jay's success is that he brings in guys that want to buy into the nova culture - not really something that translates to the nba (at least not right away)... plus his O schemes prioritize the 3 which is an issue for a team with so few shooters
I’m a nova fan and i think he’s a great coach that could probably make the jump well but who knows
Phenomenal coach. The only thing is college success doesn’t always translate to the NBA because it’s two completely different games.
How does he make a jump to the Sixers without an NBA job?
They mixed up "NBA" and "Sixers"
They mean that the only way he comes to the NBA is if it’s as the Sixer’s coach; it’s just worded poorly.
Ironically, Philly have had some really good assistants in the past: Monty Williams and Will Weaver (now head coach of my Sydney Kings) as examples.
Also Lloyd Pierce with the Hawks now
I still firmly believe that Lloyd Pierce moving to the Hawks is what made our defense fall from top 3 to like 14
Interesting because the hawks defense is completely abysmal lol. Obviously a lot of that is roster but good lord.
Yeah it would not surprise me in the slightest if we look back in a few years and realize Lloyd was a better coach than Brett all along.
this is the one that worried me. Lloyd had more input than i think the average fan was aware of.
I think in general, assistants have more input than most would acknowledge.
Lue isn't bad at all. Kenny Atkinson is still available too
Maybe the Sixers will try to pursue Pop like the Nets are going to try to do lol
Maybe if the nets don't hire Jacque Vaughan on permanently he'll want to get out of the organization and will consider it lmao
Although at the moment the bulls and Pels are both also on the hunt for a new head coach.
I was thinking Atkinson for the Sixers as well. Can’t think of too many better options at this point
Kenny has the same problems as Brett IMO. It would be at best a lateral move.
I'd be shocked if Lue didn't go to the Nets
Becky Hammond?
Idk, I'm scared of picking someone from the Pop tree now
Nick Nurse was an assistant coach for years that no one really knew and he won a COTY in his second year as a head coach. It might not be the best choice for a team with a win now mentality, but there is a lot of talented coaches that just need an opportunity and perhaps they can be the next Nick Nurse (but tbh I don't expect the Sixers FO to be able to scout talent like that and make a good decision)
Please god no. Give me Jay Wright
Bah gawd that's Jim Boylen's music?
Anyone who hires that guy deserves the 2-3 years of tanking before firing him. He probably was the worst coach in the league.
I hope Jim Boylen only goes to tanking teams so that the only thing he is capable of is stacking L's.
But let's be honest here, Boylen is never getting a head coaching gig in the NBA ever again.
Jason Kidd it is then
JVG step right up!
I hear Boylen is available
He can't coach three teams at once
This is like starting a drag racing team and hiring a bus driver, then buying an ice cream truck as the first team vehicle. Then firing the bus driver because he couldn't win races because he had to keep selling ice cream to customers every 10 ft along the drag strip and it took 4 hours to run the quarter mile.
As an avid drag racer myself, this is the metaphor I needed.
It's a simile, bro.
This is 100% correct. I have shamed my family.
Simile through the pain
All similes are metaphors, not all metaphors are similes.
This is just a bandaid fix unless they clean house in the FO
Which they are not. Brand gets to consolidate power.
Brand ain’t even the one pulling strings. Firing him would do less than firing Brett will
Lol it's not even a bandaid fix. Firing bret is like healing crystal medical treatment. He wasn't the root problem and firing him is just to cater to the minds of idiots
[Wojnarowski] Brown’s dismissal is expected to be a precursor for more upheaval with the 76ers, whose senior leadership – including general manager Elton Brand -- will begin exploring changes in the front office structure, sources said.
As long as Brand is there, do the Sixers have any hope?
Brand is a figure head. At the time of his signing, he made it clear he won't have final say over personnel transactions.
There are multiple Colagelo lackeys above him in the org chart, and ultimately, this falls on the ownership group.
Comment deleted by user
Rest In Peace, sweet prince. Never forget the process
its sunny in philadelphia
Won’t be sunny till that entire front office is gone
Comment deleted by user
He's trying to micro-co-manage me
This ain't enough to make the sun shine. Partly cloudy
80% cloudy
“The Gang Cleans House”
Is your head coach making TOO MANY BAD DECISIONS ALL THE TIME?
Think there’s no answer?
You’re so stupid!
There is - fire him! (and Brand and other FO members)
Is your Head Coach not living up to expectations, off to a bad start, or an in-between?
That doesn't matter, 'cause one size fits all!
Comment deleted by user
He's like 25% of the blame at most and it's mostly because he's given a bad hand and doesn't fit for them anymore.
The Gang Fires their Head Coach
because of the implication
“The Gang trusts the process”
The Brand-man cometh
Lmao. This another time where we act like the 76ers made the defacto move to get them to the next level?
Should be Brand.
And Ned Cohen. And Alex Rucker. And Scott O'Neill. None of them are taking any blame for this even though they all have an equal say in what moves get made along with Elton and Josh Harris.
Thanks for your service Brett. Great guy, just had to move on. If they hire Ty Lue I am fucking done.
I think Stackhouse honestly gets a look here though.
A Duke guy and a UNC guy? Could be trouble.
Brett Frown
The Tank Commander
Boylen is available
people have been complaining about Embiid's conditioning, Boylen would fix that right up with non stop line drills
Thank you Brett. It was time to move on, but you were always a professional and a stand up guy. Best of luck to you going forward.
You're very welcome, IHaveLargeBalls.
I really liked Brett as a person (podcasts, interviews and the likes) and I wish him all the best. He was given a very hard task for 7 years and did his best with the hands he was dealt. I honestly don't know which availabe coach could do a better job. This team needs more than just a new coach to fulfill its potential.
ScapeGOAT.
Elton brand when
Hes a fine coach, its more of a management issues for the sixers but the team needs a new voice after 7 years with Brett
This is the first step to winning a championship.
Source: Toronto Raptors
Step two: Trade Embiid, Matisse, 1st round pick for a player with questionable health (KD, Klay Thompson) and a throw-in player.
Elton Brown, Alex Rucker and Ned Cohen NEED to go next or this means nothing
water is wet
Stan Van Gundy enters the chat
They will not get a better coach out there than Brett
Whether they do or not, this was the right move
Yup. It's been 7 years and his tenure had peaked. A change was needed and will happen, even though more changes need to be made there than just a head coaching change.
fuck it’s really been seven years. I remember him starting the gig during my freshman year of college. time flies. Granted they haven’t lived up to expectations lately they have came a long way from when he started.
It's because the first few years they purposefully tanked. He really was only under the spotlight for the last few years
So much of his leash in the media is because during all the tanking he was puffed up as holding the locker room together.
Comment removed by moderator
7 years is a bit misleading. The first few years were just them purposefully being bad. He only had two playoff appearances with embiid and Simmons together. You can really only fairly judge him in the past few years
You ain't wrong but the coach is the easiest change to make. The real people responsible aren't gonna fire themselves.
Their main issue is Brand. As long as he's the GM, they've got a problem
The main issue is Josh Harris
Dude is a shit owner
He keeps meddling in basketball decisions. He probably fancies himself as another Mark Cuban or Joe Lacob, but he's closer to Vivek Ranadive.
Looks like he’s getting even more power... Interesting. Figured he’d be the ‘fall guy’ in the FO. Guess not. 🤷🏽♂️
Nope, along with ownership as the other guy said, the main issue is that Ned Cohen, Alex Rucker and Scott O'Neill still have jobs here and are just as culpable as Elton in the terrible moves this team has made. They were just smart enough to stay under the radar through burnergate, then hire Elton as the face of their group so they still catch no blame
It was definitely time to move on. He will find a job somewhere else in the NBA, 100%.
I think they are an attractive enough destination they will get a coach with at least as strong a reputation as Brett, although that doesn't guarantee the coach will be better.
But teams often get a new coach boost, simply changing things up could make them less predictable and maybe give them a boost. You never know if a new coach will figure something out to make them more dangerous.
Udoka would probably be a better coach and he’s already on their staff
Udoka in charge of our defense which let kembert and tatum walk into open shot after open shot. No thanks bring in someone with zero relation to the team
Also had Monty Williams. Wonder if they would have liked him now?
Whoever thought 112mil to horford was a sound investment, needs to be the first head on the block.
Thank you for ushering us through the process.
The last 3 seasons just weren’t good enough but that’s not completely on Brett. Elton should also be relieved of his duties.
Do you think this hurts Brett Brown's chances of being with the 76ers next season?
no he gonna be the new 3&D guy
Jay Wright wouldn’t even have to buy a new house
His status is week to week
Trust The (Never-Ending) Process
how u get fired on ur day off
It was time. Thanks Brett, but we need to go in a new direction.
Hinkie died for this 😢
They need to get Brand outta there too.
elton brand should be canned asap. i doubt many coaches could make this clusterf* roster work
yeah that'll solve the spacing issues the GM was responsible for fixing