Give Brown credit for locker room bond that’s keeping team together
BOSTON » Markelle Fultz grabbed a late-game traffic rebound, uncoiling as Brett Brown likes to describe it, his long arms making him play bigger than his 6-4 program height. With that, he was paraded around the court by his teammates, with T.J. McConnell the grand marshal, proudly lifting the rookie’s hands in the air in triumph.
It was quite a response for one player achieving one triple-double in a rout of a final game of the season. And if not for one reason, it would have seemed oddly unnecessary if not a professional affront to the Milwaukee Bucks, who were behind by 40 at that moment. That reason: It was sincere. And that sincerity, that genuine team spirit, that day-to-day celebration of one player for another explains as much as anything why the Sixers are two rounds into the playoffs and on a onegame winning streak.
In an industry where playing time means money, there has always been a necessary and productive atmosphere of tolerance in almost any NBA locker room. Players act as a team, and, more often than not, behave professionally during games. But the Sixers are relatively and refreshingly amateurish about the whole thing. And the Fultz-McConnell dynamic is the most vivid example.
That McConnell would have been so happy for a teammate a few weeks ago would not have been as noteworthy had Fultz not taken McConnell’s playing time. But it was when the courtesy was returned Monday during the Sixers’ season-saving 103-92 victory over the Boston Celtics that it gained a fresh coat of relevance. For as a Wells Fargo Center crowd serenaded McConnell with “T.J.! T.J.! T.J.!” chants at the end of his legendary night’s work, it was Fultz who had the widest smile on the bench, joining in the chanting while high-fiving McConnell and pointing toward him, encouraging more cheers.
Recapping: When Fultz took his job, McConnell accepted that it was best for the 76ers. And when McConnell took his job, Fultz accepted that it was best for the 76ers. And when McConnell took Robert Covington’s starting job Monday in an elimination game, Brown received exactly zero inhouse grief.
Hey … whatever happened to play-me-or-trademe?
“He’s amazing,” Brown said of Covington. “He is an amazing teammate, a genuinely good person. And he handled it like I knew that he would. Incredibly supportive. Whatever it takes to win.”
The Sixers are down, 3-1, in the Eastern Conference semifinals, and again will confront the possibility of golf Wednesday at 8 in the TD Garden. When they were down, 3-0, there was the predictable criticism of Brown, who only half in jest inferred that he wasn’t being as warmly received by the other caffeine-heads at his preferred coffee shop. Because it’s what sports fans do, they began to question Brown’s substitution patterns, his use (or non-use) of timeouts and his inbound plays, one of which turned banana-peel clumsy in an overtime loss in Game 3.
“After the Miami series, expectations went higher,” Brown said. “Then, you are down, 0-3, and lose some tough games and people are saying, ‘What’s going on here?’ And I understand. It’s Philadelphia. And I think that’s what makes it great.”
Naturally, it all went too far, with Brown being accused for days about being comically inferior to Boston coach Brad Stevens, who has avoided a two-game losing streak because, among other reasons, Marco Belinelli’s inner basketball GPS failed to direct him to the business side of a threepoint line. But among the tricks of successful coaching is winning the locker room. And something has nudged the Sixers into one of the most remarkably content rosters in the franchise’s modern history. At times, it even borders on weird, like when well-compensated professionals dance around in front of the bench during the first halves of otherwise pedestrian regular-season games, making like college walk-ons just happy to be there.
Though McConnell did not cost Ben Simmons playing time Monday, he did assume a portion of the point-guard responsibilities at the offensive end. Yet, in Sixers character, that was not an issue.
“We knew this was the final opportunity to get back into the series and everyone is aware of that,” Simmons said. “The energy that T.J. brought was huge for us, and he stepped up. I think everyone fed off of that energy. We really took care of business and nobody was lacking. Everyone was picking each other up and playing together.”
The Sixers have spent five years inching to the brink of contention. If they don’t win a championship this spring, they immediately will cite the benefits of postseason experience. After that, they will make roster changes. Some players could bump into free agency. They will use their cap room and other assets to acquire at least one more star player. It’s all in the plan.
But no plan could have been designed to give the Sixers what they have this year: A blend of veteran players who agreed to play on a short-term basis for the possibility of quick success, and of young players who don’t yet know how to make faces whenever the head coach drags them out of a game.
It doesn’t work that way forever.
It rarely works that way at all.
For that, Brett Brown deserves to have his hand raised in triumph, too.