When the Philadelphia 76ers brought in Ryan Broekhoff on a substitute deal, they knew they were getting a guy who could really shoot the lights out. The Sixers are a team in need of some shooting and he is a career 40.3% shooter from deep in two NBA seasons with the Dallas Mavericks.
What some may not know is that Broekhoff already has a relationship with coach Brett Brown due to their team together in Australia. Broekhoff then opened up on a funny story about Brown actually cutting home from the Olympic team in 2001.
“I do remember he cut me from the 2012 Olympic squad so that’s one thing that I can joke about now,” he said with a laugh. “Especially now with him being announced as the national team head coach again. We’ve had a few conversations and I see this as a great way to see up close and personal and get some extra time to learn his philosophies and how things may work not only with the Sixers, but with the national team as well.”
Broekhoff will be joining a Sixers team that is deep at the wing positions and there is no guarantee that he will be playing when the season does resume for the Sixers, but at the end of the day, he will be a solid addition to this team moving forward.
“I was shocked that he agreed to come,” said Brown. “First of all, you know I’ve known him. I recruited I brought him into the Australian team when I was the national coach of Australia pre the London Olympic Games so I’ve known Ryan forever, and to mislead him about hey there’s lots of opportunity here, that’s not true and I told him that you know you’ve got what six people we all can look at each other and say well what about Matisse (Thybulle) and Glenn Robinson and Furkan (Korkmaz) and Alec Burks and you know you can go on and on and on this isn’t an opportunity that it’s clear.”
Broekhoff understands the opportunity to play may not be there, but he is still grateful for the opportunity to play for the Sixers.
“I think the opportunity, in the end, was going to be too hard to pass up,” he explained. “A chance to work with coach Brown and the Philadelphia 76ers and have the opportunity to go into what’s going to be a very unique environment down in Orlando, I still feel like I’m on the cusp of finding somewhere steady in the NBA and hopefully that will be Philly.”
The team will head down to Orlando on July 9 to continue preparation for the season resumption which for them will be on August 1 against the Indiana Pacers. [lawrence-related id=33832,33823,33813]