Report: 76ers to hire Spurs assistant Brett Brown as head coach

By Anthony Caruso III | Publisher

The Philadelphia 76ers were criticized for their long wait to find their next head coach.

There were many veteran head coaches that they could have had when 8 teams elected to go in a new direction once the season ended. Yet, while they could have had these coaches, the 76ers elected to tab their new head coach from the San Antonio Spurs organization.

The 76ers have reportedly hired former Spurs assistant coach Brett Brown to be their new coach. Brown will replace Doug Collins, who lasted just three seasons as the head coach in Philadelphia.

Brown was an assistant for many of the Spurs successful seasons, coaching Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili. Brown was apart of the Spurs 2006-07 championship team that beat the Cleveland Cavaliers for the championship.

Brown has spent the past seven seasons on the Spurs coaching staff. He is the second Spurs assistant coach to be named a head coach this off-season, as Mike Budenholzer was named the Atlanta Hawks head coach.

Prior to being named an assistant coach on Greg Popovich’s staff, he served five years as the Spurs player development coach. Prior to being hired by the 76ers, he was a candidate for the Boston Celtics head coaching position that was recently vacated by Doc Rivers, who was just hired by the Los Angeles Clippers several days ago.

He also interviewed for the Denver Nuggets head coaching position. That position eventually went to Brian Shaw, who has been waiting for years to be hired as a head coach, before his current appointment with the Nuggets.

Brown was a former college basketball player at Boston University when Rick Pitino was the head coach. Besides working for the Spurs, he does have previous head coaching experience yet it came in Australia. He served as the head coach in 14 seasons in the Australian National Basketball League.

He was named the Australian National Basketball League’s Coach of the Year in 1994. In those 14 years, he was 149-129 as a head coach there.

With his Australian ties, he was named the Australian National team head coach in 2009. He guided to Aussies to some success, and even helped the Australian National Team to the 2012 Olympic bid.

This is the first hiring by Sam Hinkie, the new Sixers General Manager. Just hours before this hiring, Hinkie traded away his point guard in Jrue Holiday to the New Orleans Pelicans for the draft rights to Nerlens Noel, who won’t be able to complete until December at the very earliest after tearing his ACL while playing at Kentucky in his freshman year.