Elton Brand brings needed goodwill

CAMDEN, N.J. » By definition and by choice, by record and without apology, Sam Hinkie was a loser as the general manager of the 76ers.

Twice available each year for questioning, or three times at the most, he was a guarded, private citizen with no interest in arguing about why he was willing to lose basketball games. His idea of connecting with the public was, every once in a while, to say the word “trope.”

Many appreciated his process. None could have found him to be a valued source of organizational goodwill.

So the Sixers needed more, and after a brief transition period with the accomplished Jerry Colangelo, Bryan Colangelo would be next. And while Jerry’s son promised to be available and accountable, to connect with a town and its press and its fans, he instead retreated into some weird web of social-media accounts, with some alleged to have leaked insults about the Sixers. He denied that. But he also quit the job. Either way, his chilly personality and day-to-day refusal to be available for answers left him absent of any public support once he’d slipped into what could have been but a shallow puddle of hot water.

Their records, their processes, their approach to NBA general managing aside, both Sam Hinkie and Bryan Colangelo would fade into Philadelphia sports history as punch lines. So by Thursday, Josh Harris showed, the Sixers were tired of punch lines. That’s when he formally introduced Elton Brand as kind-of, sort-of their next general manager.

“We’re thrilled,” Harris said. Ah. OK. Brand, 39, could be a good one. He was a splendid NBA player, ever a valuable teammate. He was educated at Duke, and was thirsty to learn the basketball business from his agent, David Falk. Last season, he was a general manager in the G-League. He’d been on the track to run an NBA team. But the Sixers already had revealed their real play call long before they re-directed Brand onto the express route.

Remember the mouthful the organization spilled in August, just about the time when many were wondering how they could be hovering around 100 days without a general manager? Remember when people few ever knew were involved suddenly were given defined basketball roles? Remember when Marc Eversley was appointed senior vice-president of player personnel, and Ned Cohen was named assistant general manager, and Alex Rucker was announced as the senior vice president of analytics and strategy, all in one exhale? That was the Sixers’ play. That was their replacement for Colangelo.

Some guy would handle personnel, some other guy would handle strategy, and some other guy would assist in the whole process. That would allow interim general manager Brett Brown to do what he does best, which is design sideline-out-of-bounds plays. And with that, the Sixers could function as a professional basketball program.

All they needed at that point was a front man, a formal general manager so they could say they had a formal general manager. And if that general manager happened to be approachable and open and the winner of a “Good Guy Award” from the local sports writers, they finally could be free of years of deliberately unpopular GMs.

Though Brand will have control over signings and star-hunting, just to grab a phrase out of nowhere, he wasn’t the general manager for 15 minutes Thursday before Harris made it clear that he wasn’t in control of the things that pro-sports general managers are known to control. Like who is the head coach. That sort of minor thing.

“Elton will report to me and make decisions for this team off the court,” Harris said. “But Brett Brown will make decisions on the court and also report to me.” The owner added, “So Elton and Brett are partners, like in many, many great organizations in basketball.”

Nor was the strength of the Harris-Brown connection a secret. That was clear when Brown and Harris together made the formal announcement that Bryan Colangelo had walked. Colangelo already had tested Brown’s strength by making him spend half a year being professionally life-guarded by Mike D’Antoni on the bench. But as Brown was going through his 52-win 2017-2018 season, Harris was often seen in post-game press conferences, smiling at all of Brown’s answers.

Not that he would be in peril of job-loss anyway, but it’s clear: This general manager cannot touch Brown, or even begin to prepare for his exit, the way that D’Antoni experiment appeared.

“Basically, basketball decisions, I’ll make those,” Brand said. “I’ll make those recommendations to ownership. Coach and I are one. It is a partnership. Teams that have won in the NBA, the GM and the coaches have to get along. He’s going to have the players. But when it comes to trades, draft process, I’m running that. That’s what I’ve been hired for.”

He’s also been hired to be visible while Eversley, Cohen, Rucker and Brown all take on some traditional general-managing tasks.

“We’re at a new point in our team’s development into, hopefully, an NBA championship,” Harris said. “And we need to be attracting talent here. And certainly Elton’s image and his personality and who he is as a person, all of those things were real positive. But, by the way, leadership and managerial skills and the things you’ve got to do in the front office that are not just about image, he’s got those, too. But certainly, that was a huge positive.”

In that, Brand is a nice fit. Finally, the operation can hum inside while, outside, it is strengthened by a friendly gentleman with unquestioned basketball bonafides.

Two punch-line general managers were two too many.

Jack McCaffery Columnist