The Philadelphia 76ers brought in reinforcements over the trade deadline with the acquisitions of Glenn Robinson III and Alec Burks. for Robinson III, this wasn’t necessarily a debut, but a return for him.
The Sixers were not the first team he played for, but he did play in Philadelphia as a rookie in the 2014-15 season after he was acquired from the Minnesota Timberwolves. So when he stepped on to the floor, it almost felt at home for him as he scored 10 points on 5-for-6 shooting in 12 minutes in a 118-111 win over the Chicago Bulls.
Robinson III said there was no message from coach Brett Brown pregame as he was already familiar with the schemes.
“We talked before I got here, but we really didn’t get too much time,” he explained. “I’ll catch up with him tomorrow at practice, but really playing hard and don’t worry about the plays or little things. Just go out there and play hard and try to bring some energy.”
Glenn Robinson III says there was no message from Brett Brown pregame #Sixers pic.twitter.com/d0O7ivooWx
— Ky Carlin (@Ky_Carlin) February 10, 2020
Brown had some praise for his new piece after the win as well.
“He’s got a bounce,” he said. “I coached Glenn my second year in Philadelphia for a minute, but we had a taste of him and he was good people and I’ve seen his growth continue, making shots, guarding the other team’s best players. To see him come in here and score and play and have a feel of where to slash, he had a lot of smart slashes where we got stuck a bit with dribble penetration and he bailed us out finding open space at the rim. I’m excited to have him in the program and we know that he’s good people.”
To the Sixers’ credit, the guys were on the floor helping him through everything. It’s also easy to play off of guys like Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, and Josh Richardson and be able to get easy baskets off of that.
“I think it’s always a little different coming in on the first day, let alone have a game,” he said. “The teammates did a great job of filling me in and catching me up on the plays and I really just played off of them. I was able to cut and we have a lot of guys on this team that draw a lot of attention so being able to cut and read off of them is important.”
Furkan Korkmaz, who will be one of the wings that Robinson III will be battling for minutes with, is excited to have him in the fold.
“For the first game, it was impressive,” said Korkmaz. “I know Glenn was tired from traveling and trade stuff, it’s hard to come in and make an impact on the game in crucial moments. We also said welcome with the win. I think as a team we will show more friendship, more friendly basketball on the court. We will take our backs more when we keep winning like this.”
For Robinson III, this is only the beginning for him as he continues to carve out a role on this team going forward. [lawrence-related id=25375,25366,25344]