Covington helped give greatness a shot
PHILADELPHIA >> Whenever the history of the Sixers’ long, long journey from absurdity to contention and possibly a championship is repeated, there will have to be a place for those not permitted to hang around for its finish. No one will fit that description better than Robert Covington.
Not a splashy draft choice won through the unholy process of losing games, he was the other kind of player the Sixers would need to make their process work. He was a find, an available professional just looking for an opportunity, a symbol not of basketball personnel trickery but of honest and solid talent evaluation.
For parts of five seasons, he would work for Brett Brown, joining a truly hideous team after being waived by the Houston Rockets and developing into a valuable, twoway contributor. Not out of place in any three-point contest, he developed, too, into a first-team alldefense player, and was one of the earliest in the NBA whose position was described perfectly in a newer-age phrase, “three and D.”
He wasn’t a star. But he was close enough to one to help the Sixers grow from a 10-win insult to a 52-win Eastern Conference contender. Then, he was gone, sent to Minnesota in a deal last season that would yield Jimmy Butler. That was him in the Wolves’ lineup Wednesday, being applauded during introductions, just before the other four starters were taunted with a popular fullthroated semi-profanity.
“I’ll remember the playoff run we went on,” Covington was saying before the game. “And I’ll remember the rough years, and just being able to develop into an actual NBA player. There was a lot of stigma about me coming out, undrafted out of college, and questions of whether I could be here.
“But I was given the opportunity and made the best of it.”
He’s 28 and has twoplus years remaining on what likely will be his final heavy contract, one paying him around $12 million a year. But after a rough start in Minnesota, where last season he encountered a season-ending knee injury after 22 games, he has recovered to become the familiar RoCo-3 again. He was averaging 11.3 points and shooting 41.9 percent from behind the arc, and showing few if any signs of lingering knee pain or the reported rough recovery that followed.
The Sixers had to make the Butler trade last season, even if it did cost them Covington and Dario Saric. As for the cost to their foundation, the one Brown had worked so hard to build, that will not be measured until they go deeper into the playoffs without Covington than they did when he was around.
Brown was thinking about Covington before the game. He would wonder how he would neutralize him at one end and attack him at the other, knowing that it would be difficult. Yet he thought about him, too, as a friend, as one of the longest-serving players in his process years, as a player he was proud to help direct toward NBA fulfillment.
“I look back and I see some of the guys that we have been able to touch and develop,” Brown said. “And I love when my guys get paid. I love it. I really do. And for Cov to secure a contract, or for T.J. McConnell to secure a contract, you really enjoy that, hoping that in some small way you had a part in that journey. I enjoy watching the improvement of players like that. And to be able to see Cov out there in a little while is something I will enjoy and look forward to.”
He wouldn’t say it, and he couldn’t say it, and it wouldn’t have rung completely true had he indicated that he’d wished Covington were still in his locker room. Joel Embiid recently mentioned Matisse Thybulle as a young Sixer with Covington-like tools. But Thybulle is a rookie, new to the program, not hardened by any of the poor seasons Covington was happy to endure.
Either way, the Sixers moved on. That’s what processes do. But Brown still doesn’t have a plugand-play replacement for Covington’s shooting skills, and Elton Brand likely will go shopping for one around the trade deadline.
Though not Covington’s first return to the Wells Fargo Center Wednesday, it was the first for which he would be healthy enough to play. So before the game, he strolled down the corridor to say hello to some old friends near the Sixers’ locker room, anxious to take a look around for memories.
“It feels good to be back to myself, back playing,” he said. “Last year was a rough year. Ultimately, I feel better than I have before, heath-wise. I’m just thankful to be back doing what I love.”
He is playing. He is scoring. He is shooting. He is helping a team develop. He is healthy. And if he has any regrets, it’s that he wasn’t asked to stay around and see the Sixers’ project through to completion.
“Of course,” he said. “After so many years, of course you want to see it through. But the opportunity went out the door. And once they made the change, my focus shifted to Minnesota. And my ultimate goal was to become the best player you’ve ever been.
“You have to fit into another system and do that exact same thing you’ve done previously. You have to bring it to another culture.”
He knows what it will take. It will all be right there, high in the stories about the Sixers and their rebirth, for as long as they will ever be told.