On Monday afternoon, 76ers made a move that would help this young team as they signed veteran forward Elton Brand and released Christian Wood.
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While Brand might not be able to provide the astounding athleticism that we witness on a nightly basis from other power forwards league-wise, he does offer veteran wisdom that many others do not offer, leadership skills that the 3-33 Philadelphia 76ers are certainly lacking. Then he chose to retire from the game last August after spending the last two seasons with the Atlanta Hawks.
Bringing in a veteran presence has been suspected for sometime ever since Jerry Colangelo joined the Sixers’ front office brass with the intention of improving the major PR hit the team’s taken over the last few seasons while also possibly adding a few more wins in the short term. He is returning to the National Basketball Association so that he can be a mentor to rookie Jahlil Okafor and other young players.
“It’s about communicating with them like men”, Brand said in a self-written Sports Illustrated piece.
Brand has 16 years of NBA experience which includes the 2000 Co-Rookie of the Year and a two-time NBA All-Star selection while averaging 16.1 points and 8.6 rebounds per game and shooting 50.1% for his career.
Since both of them played for the Duke Blue Devils, there might even be an automatic bond between Elton Brand and Jahlil Okafor.
Elton Brand fully understands that humbling reality.
It’s not so much that I failed the guys I was tasked with mentoring over the years; it’s that I barely even tried. “I think I still got it”, Brand said.
“I didn’t know him personally”.
Chicago made Brand the first overall pick in the 1999 National Basketball Association draft.
Brand said he intends to begin on-court practice activities on Tuesday, at the Sixers’ training facility at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. “When you have the volume of the 20-year-olds we have, his role will be one of guidance, mentorship”. He was released from the team via an amnesty clause during the Summer of 2012.
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He wrote that Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie approached him about signing with the team. “And you wouldn’t believe what goes on on a bench when you’re down 20, and you wouldn’t believe what goes on in players’ minds when it’s a two-point game with a minute and a half left, and do they know their assignments”. “I may not make it to the end, when it’s really great around here, but I can be a part of something as a player”.
