Hiring Jay Wright would be a wise investment
PHILADELPHIA>> Brett Brown was chatting casually the other night, the way basketball people do, and the topic was the NCAA Final, how it ended, what it meant. Then, as it should have, the conversation turned to the Sixers.
“Can’t we keep talking about Villanova?” Brown said, laughing.
The remark was funny and appropriate and disarming, characteristics which have made Brown so perfect to front for what the Sixers’ front office has been committing. He gets basketball, and he gets Philadelphia, and he gets Philadelphia basketball. So he was all-in on the college team that shares the Wells Fargo Center floor. And when the discussion ended later with more informal Villanova talk, and somebody asked how Jay Wright would do in the NBA and somebody else asked why he would leave the Main Line, a third voice chimed in: “Four times the money. That’s why.” Brown laughed. “And there is the accountant,” he said, before retreating into the locker room.
Brett Brown has done the best with what he has had to work with this season. Jay Wright did the best with his team, too. But that’s not the way they handle the bookkeeping in that industry, and so, there will be the natural chatter: What about Wright as the next coach of the Sixers?
No, Brown has not been fired. Yes, he was given an extension, guaranteeing him income through 2019. Yes, Jerry Colangelo has formally approved of Brown’s coaching skills. Yes, Mike D’Antoni was dragged into the situation, indicating something of a succession plan. No, Brown’s record has not been good. No, nothing is imminent. Something, though, has to snap with the Sixers, and it has to snap soon.
If nothing else was clear this season, it was that Brown was exasperated by the task of trying to fit Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor into the same lineup, let alone into the same together-they-build process. The Brown-Okafor-Noel combination will not work. Not next season. Not the year after. And while Brown has tried to smile through that challenge, acknowledging that it was a franchise mission to make it work, his actions smothered his words. Occasionally, and with cause, he just refused to have Okafor in the game when defense mattered. Because if he were a baseball player, Jahlil Okafor’s only position could be designated hitter.
The Sixers have options. They can trade Okafor for maximum value. They can trade Noel for high value. They can trade them both, but that would push even the last Son of Sam Hinkie supporter out of bounds. Or they can consider a coaching change. And if they consider a coaching change, the discussion would have to begin and end with Wright. Anyone else, D’Antoni included, would not be worth the upheaval. Wright, though, would. He can coach. He can sell. Brown has been a genius at camouflaging his professional pain to cover for Hinkie’s failures; Wright would be as adept at that task, yet with the weight that comes from having just won a national championship.
Brown earns about $2 million annually. Wright makes closer to $2.5 million at Villanova. At the minimum, Villanova can be expected to thrust him into the Top 10 highestpaid college coaches and pay him in the area of $3.5 million. That would also make him better compensated than at least a handful of coaches in the NBA. But with Wright’s skills and popularity in Philadelphia, the Sixers should be able to match what Oklahoma City used to lure Billy Donovan from the University of Florida, about $6 million a year.
If Villanova bumps Wright to $3.5 million ($4 million, anybody?) and the Sixers counter with $7 million, that would be a difficult offer to reject. Many insist Wright doesn’t want to leave the area, that he loves his home, that his kids are comfortable here, all of that. But he did once work at UNLV and later at Hofstra. So he is not under house arrest. And even if he were committed to a 610 area code, he could coach the Sixers, double his income, and never have to fill out a changeof-address card.
Whatever Wright achieves at Villanova, it is not going to top being ranked No. 1 in the nation and then winning the NCAA championship on a last-second shot. Maybe he sticks around as they prepare a new on-campus facility, perhaps with his name on the floor. Other than that, the game is over at Lancaster and Ithan Aves. And not only has Jay Wright won it, he can hang on the rim to rub it in.
But should he take the Sixers job, there is room for growth. In fact, with that franchise, there is more room for growth than at just about any time in NBA history. If Wright has a .500 record at the next All-Star break, he’s a Coach of the Year candidate. If he makes the playoffs in a year or two, he wins another raise. And at 54, he could coach the Sixers for three years, struggle … and still be young enough to be the hottest candidate for the next mega-time college coaching job.
None of that might happen. Don’t let it get around, but Josh Harris is not heavily into spending to improve his basketball team. Yet Colangelo insists the Sixers are planning to aggressively stalk free agents. If they want to spend on players, not coaches, who could argue? But if they want to invest in coaching, they would have their ideal candidate. And he often works in a locker room a few feet down the hall.