The Philadelphia 76ers are beginning to get a little restless. Following a frustrating 0-3 start to their four-game road trip, Josh Richardson claimed that the Sixers have a lack of accountability in their locker room. While Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons have different opinions on what Richardson had to say, coach Brett Brown is at peace with the comments.
“I’m fine with it,” said Brown. “I live in the truth really well. I like the truthful discussions. If thy can feel they can be more candid with one another, then so be it. By and large, we keep things pretty much in house as you know. I think it was delivered with good intentions and a level of accuracy.”
Philadelphia did just wallop the NBA-leading Milwaukee Bucks on Christmas Day that was meant to be a win that could jump-start them forward, however that has not been the case. They did not have the right energy against the Orlando Magic to begin the trip, then made a comedy of errors down the stretch in a loss to the Miami Heat, and it then resulted in Tuesday’s bad loss to the Indiana Pacers which led to Richardson’s comments.
“It’s just part of 82 games,” Brown continued. “It happens sometimes when you lose, these kinds of cracks emerge and sometimes they’re overblown and sometimes they’re accurate, a bit of pre-mortem stuff. That’s a long-winded answer to say I’m OK with it. We had a great practice and they talked freely and we’re excited to go play Houston.”
When it comes to accountability, that can be on a coach to get guys motivated. It can be on the leader to go out there and make sure his team is ready to go and Brown accepts that.
“I’m the head coach and I own it all,” he added. “I really mean that and at times you need some help, but I’m the head coach and that’s part of a head coach’s job. I think that we’ve navigated some interesting times here in Philadelphia well, there are things that we could have done better, but a week ago, we were pretty good on Christmas. It’s such a snapshot to how this whole thing works. You feel pretty good one day and then you don’t feel so good six days later.
It’s my job to help these guys be at their best and tell them when they’re not.”
The challenge now is to head to Houston to take on James Harden and Russell Westbrook and try to break out of the slump. [lawrence-related id=22539,22521,22512]