Philadelphia 76ers fire Brett Brown
It was a disappointing conclusion to the campaign for the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday, as they were swept by the Boston Celtics in four straight games in the opening round of the NBA playoffs. The 76ers had finished sixth in the Eastern Conference during the regular season and were hoping to make a deep playoff run from inside the NBA bubble. When that didn’t happen though, the team decided it was time to make changes.
On Monday, the 76ers fired head coach Brett Brown who had been with the organization for seven seasons.
“I have a tremendous level of respect for Brett both personally and professionally and appreciate all he’s done for the 76ers organization and the City of Philadelphia,” said general manager Elton Brand through a team statement. “He did many positive things during his time here, developing young talent and helping position our team for three straight postseason appearances.
“Unfortunately, we fell well short of our goals this year and I believe it is best to go in a new direction. This will be an important offseason for us as we look to get back on track towards our goal of competing for an NBA championship.”
Brown joined Philadelphia during the offseason in 2013, after spending over a decade with the San Antonio Spurs organization in a variety of different roles, including director of player development and assistant coach. He won four NBA championships with the club.
While he did not make the playoffs in his first four years with Philadelphia, Brown guided the 76ers to the postseason for the last three consecutive campaigns. However, the club has never managed to escape the second round under his tutelage. This was the first time since 2016-17 that they didn’t even make it past the first round.
“In 2013, I was employed to lead one of the most dramatic rebuilds in professional sports history,” Brown said in a statement. “In the past seven years, our players and coaches have evolved and grown, and I have deep appreciation for the 102 players I have coached.”
It remains to be seen where the organization goes from here, as they did not immediately announce a new head coach to succeed Brown.
“We are really disappointed and know we let our fans down,” 76ers managing partner Josh Harris said in a statement, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. “It’s unacceptable and it’s important that we all hold ourselves accountable.
“We’re going to be doing a real assessment of how we got here and expect that more changes will need to be made in order to get this organization back on track. This will be a crucial offseason for us and we need to get this right.”
With two young and talented All-Stars in Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons the team still has plenty of potential. However, the 76ers need to find someone to steer them in the right direction.
After eliminating the 76ers, Boston moves on to play the defending NBA champions Toronto Raptors in the second round. Game one of the best-of-seven series tips off on Thursday evening at 6:30 pm ET from inside the NBA bubble.
