76ers: The Process translates well, thanks to global outlook
MIAMI— Philadelphia’s six leading average scorers so far in the playoffs, in order are: Ben Simmons, Dario Saric, Joel Embiid, JJ Redick, Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova.
Their homelands: Australia, Croatia, Cameroon, the United States, Italy and Turkey.
Philadelphia — a melting pot of humanity for more than 300 years — has a basketball team probably as diverse as the city itself. The 76ers, 19-1 in their last 20 games and suddenly looking very much like an NBA final contender, will try to close out the Miami Heat and clinch their Eastern Conference opening series when they play host to Game 5 on Tuesday night.
About a dozen languages and dialects can be spoken in the 76ers locker room at any time.
“It’s all basketball, but the true side of how people coach, speak, say, play the game is different,” 76ers coach Brett Brown said. “And that collection now that I have with everybody is like is a melting pot of all peoples experiences. That equals a team. I mean, I love it. I love the geo-political conversa- tions. I love that diversity on the court, off the court. I enjoy it.”
Brown spent nearly two decades living overseas, spending most of that time coaching in Australia before getting hired by the San Antonio Spurs back in 2002. Brown went to Philadelphia in 2013, took loss after loss after loss for his first four sea- sons when The Process was playing itself out, and now is reaping the rewards.
Simmons, 21, has already seen the world with a basketball in hand: He’s played all over Australia, represented his country in Lithuania at the FIBA World U17 Championships as a 15year-old, ended up going to high school in Florida and spent his lone year of college at LSU.
“I’ve seen a lot,” Simmons said. “I’ve played everywhere.”
Embiid, who is in his first playoffs and wears a mask protecting his surgically repaired face, has handled playing injured with ease.
A record 62 players from 33 countries are on playoff rosters across the NBA and no one had more of them than Philadelphia — the 76ers have seven for the post-season, matching Utah for the league lead.
“My English isn’t that good, Dario’s isn’t that good, but we try to be a great group,” Belinelli said. “And we are. We go to dinner all together, we spend a lot of time together in the locker room after practice. It’s just part of the work, I think. Having all these guys from different parts of the world, it’s a good thing.”