This being Philly, Elton Brand was asked point blank: What are you doing this for?
This being Elton Brand, he fired right back: I was asking myself that.
As the owner of 16,757 career NBA points wrote in The Cauldron, he believed his 16-year professional career had ended at the free-throw line in last year’s Eastern Conference Finals with the Atlanta Hawks. David Falk, his agent, told him to stay in shape, that contenders would be calling in December and later in the season.
Falk may have been looking for a return (albeit a quieter one than when another of his clients declared “I’m back” two decades ago), but Brand wasn’t thinking along those lines. Primarily, the 37-year-old had one thought: It’s over.
“I wasn’t looking to come back,” Brand said. “I was doing yoga, I was riding my bike, I was doing other things [like] taking the kids to school. I wasn’t training per se for a comeback, not at all. ”
At the same time, Brand wasn’t looking to make any major transition just yet. He turned down assistant GM offers as well as television gigs, but when Brand received a call from his former team, in the area his family still calls home, he decided to listen a little more closely.
Even then, the marriage between the wily veteran and youngest team in the NBA wasn’t a slam dunk. It didn’t come easy, as nothing seems to with this franchise as of late. When Jerry Colangelo, who Brett Brown unsurprisingly identified as the driving force behind the move, was brought on as Chairman of Basketball Operations, Brand and the Sixers started talking.
There were discussions with Colangelo, Brown, and Sam Hinkie. These talks were about many potential roles within the organization until the question that finally lured Brand out of his house was brought up: What about playing?
His initial answer was, “Nah, I’m not a player anymore.” That’s why the entire process took over three weeks (while the Sixers spoke with other vets like Jason Richardson), but something eventually changed. The Sixers signed Brand on Monday.
“I even went on a mini-vacation to Jamaica,” Brand said. “I know they were bringing guys in and I understood if they had to sign them, no hard feelings. You have to do what you need to do, but they said they wanted me, so to be wanted is another thing also.”
His new coach is happy that Brand settled on playing. Brown was asked why it’s better that Brand is on the roster than in the front office or serving as a consultant.
“Because you wouldn’t believe what goes on at halftime when a coaching staff is in the other room,” he said. “And you wouldn’t believe what goes on a bench when you’re down 20. And you wouldn’t believe what goes on in a player’s mind when it’s a two-point game with a minute and half left and do they know their assignments?”
“It is so much deeper than putting a suit on him and thinking you’re going to get the value that I want to get out of him.”
The Sixers’ courtship of Brand shows what type of role the veteran will have in his second go-round with the team. There were conversations instead of workouts, which signifies that the Sixers are looking for Brand’s mental and emotional qualities much more than anything he has left on the floor.
Brown says he won’t anchor Brand to the bench, though. The “Old School Chevy” will initially be parked in the garage until the Sixers can get it back up to speed, but Brown plans to play Brand at least some. So, what does he have left?
“Once I really started taking it serious, I’ve been on the court training and working hard,” Brand said. “The saying goes that it’s like riding a bike, but this bike had a rusty chain and no brakes on it.”
In terms of a mentorship role, the obvious fit for Brand is Jahlil Okafor. Like Brand, Okafor was a top draft pick after a short college stay in Durham, North Carolina. Like Brand, Okafor is a big body that came into the league as a highly touted post player.
While Brand joked that Okafor might not have been born when he broke into the NBA with the Chicago Bulls (he had), the rookie is willing to learn from the elder Blue Devil.
“I just talked to him outside for a little bit,” Okafor said. “Whatever he can offer me, on the floor, off the floor, how he learned to be successful so long in this league.”
Brand is now here (in place of rookie Christian Wood, who was waived), and both the player and team seem to be happy. But the real question is if, in a way, the Sixers are offering mea culpa for initially punting on any significant NBA experience outside of Carl Landry.
Brown was asked if the Sixers initially hoped that such a move wouldn’t be necessary. Uh huh.
“If you were to answer honestly, of course,” Brown said. “But the reality of pro sport and 20-year-olds, it would’ve been maybe in hindsight naïve to think we can scoot through the NBA year trying to grow everybody without maybe some more voices of Elton’s caliber.”
“So maybe knowing what we know now, we’re always a little bit smarter after the events. I just think that to get him in here is kind of all I’m looking at as a good thing.”
The man who once took the “Philly Max” is now making a Philly comeback.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann