Tag: Elton Brand

No college basketball program has more No. 1 NBA draft picks than the Duke Blue Devils

Only two schools in NCAA history have more than two first overall picks in the history of the NBA draft, but the Blue Devils have five.

Only two NCAA basketball schools have more than two No. 1 NBA draft picks in program history. In fact, less than 20 schools have ever produced more than one. With such a deep pool of international players and more parity than most collegiate sports, it’s hard to reliably have the best player in the country.

Which makes it even crazier that Duke basketball has produced five top draft picks, two more than any other school.

Art Heyman became the first No. 1 pick in school history back in 1963, and the Blue Devils needed to wait more than 35 years before Elton Brand became the second in 1999. In the past 15 years, however, Duke has seen [autotag]Kyrie Irving[/autotag] (2011), [autotag]Zion Williamson[/autotag] (2019), and [autotag]Paolo Banchero[/autotag] (2022) each get their name called first on draft night.

The Kentucky Wildcats are the only other program with more than two No. 1 picks, and they still only have three.

Duke’s number might get even bigger in the near future with [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag], the top prospect in the Class of 2024 and a 6-foot-9 forward hailed as a generational talent, thought of as the presumptive favorite for the 2025 draft.

The 2024 NBA draft gets underway on Wednesday evening.

Report: Sixers GM Elton Brand expected to be considered for Hornets job

Philadelphia 76ers GM Elton Brand is expected to be considered for a job with the Charlotte Hornets.

The Philadelphia 76ers are in the process of looking to contend for a title in the 2023-24 season. They swung big deals to acquire Buddy Hield and Cam Payne at the deadline and are looking ahead to the postseason.

Some teams around the league are not in the same boat. The Charlotte Hornets, for example, are struggling through the season at 11-41. President of Basketball Operations Mitch Kupchak is stepping down to become an organizational advisor and the Hornets will now look for somebody new to run the basketball side of things in Charlotte.

Sixers GM Elton Brand, who has held that role since 2018, will be considered for the job, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

If Brand were to land the job with the Hornets, it would be a good opportunity for him to run the franchise and help them turn things around. He did make two huge trades for Philadelphia by acquiring Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris in the 2018-19 season.

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Sixers GM Elton Brand gives his thoughts on Joel Embiid winning MVP

Philadelphia 76ers GM Elton Brand gives his thoughts on Joel Embiid winning the MVP award.

BOSTON–Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid has been through a lot in his NBA career. From having to battle back through devastating injuries and having to miss the first two full seasons of his career to have to deal with the passing of his brother to all of the other obstacles he’s had to overcome, he’s persevered through it all.

On Tuesday, he was named the MVP of the 2022-23 season after he led the league in scoring at 33.1 points per game, grabbed 10.2 rebounds per game, and dished out 4.2 assists per game. He also averaged 1.7 blocks as he was dominant on both ends of the floor in order to help Philadelphia have as much success as it did.

General manager Elton Brand has not only been the GM of the Sixers since the 2018-19 season, but he was also a teammate of Embiid’s for a brief time in the 2015-16 season. He understands the work he has had to put in to get to this point in his career.

“Just all the hard work behind the scenes that people don’t see, it’s special to see,” Brand told Sixers Wire. “I’ve seen what it took for him to get to this level and I’m just so proud of him.”

Embiid has not only grown as a basketball player, he’s also grown as a human being during his time with the Sixers. He has been able to take his game to another level and he has been able to grow as a leader which is not always talked about with him.

“Just as a human, he talks down his leadership, but he’s really grown as a leader and he knows winning a championship starts with him and an MVP level every night,” Brand added. “He knows that and he’s shown that to his teammates and the organization.”

For Embiid and the Sixers, this is a wonderful achievement for the big fella. However, they still have a lot of work to do. They want to win a championship and they have been presented with a great opportunity to do so. They have to keep working and get to the mountaintop.

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Every player in Philadelphia 76ers history who has worn No. 42

Here is a list of every player in the long history of the Philadelphia 76ers who has worn the No. 42 uniform.

It’s summertime in the NBA, so now is the time to learn some history. The Philadelphia 76ers are one of the older franchises in the NBA. Their history dates to the 1949-50 season.

With that longevity, the team has had hundreds of players come through the City of Brotherly Love. Sixers Wire looks at the No. 42, which has been worn by 12 of those players in the history of the franchise.

This running series that will go through all of the uniform numbers worn in franchise history. The previous edition of this series was a list compiling the four players who have worn the No. 43.

Here is the list of those 12 players who have worn No. 43 in Sixers history:

Top 5 worst free agent signings in the history of the Philadelphia 76ers

Here are the top 5 worst free-agent signings made in the long history of the Philadelphia 76ers.

Free agency is set to begin in the NBA on June 30 and now is the time to look back at some free-agent history for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Every team makes some type of move in free agency every season. When a team brings in a fresh face to the roster, it believes the signing will help push it over the top.

However, there are good signings and there are bad signings that do not work out at all, and the latter is what this post focuses on.

The list is based on money received combined with lack of impact and how results played out on the court during that player’s time in Philadelphia. Let’s get to the list:

Sixers owner Josh Harris, co-owner …

The donation was inspired by the …

The donation was inspired by the treatment Sixers assistant coach Dave Joerger received at the center after he was diagnosed with head and neck cancer in October. Joerger went through seven weeks of radiation and chemotherapy and returned to the Sixers in early February.

3 former Sixers named on list of best Duke players to play in the NBA

3 former members of the Philadelphia 76ers are on a list of the best Duke players to ever play in the NBA.

With the recent final home game for Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski — a loss to hated rival North Carolina — now is the time to look back at some of the best players who played for Krzyzewski and made it in the NBA.

The Philadelphia 76ers had three such players named to a recent list put together by Cam Tabatabaie over at Rookie Wire. The list is of the best NBA  players who went to Duke.

Here are the three:

Pelicans coach Willie Green reminisces on time with Sixers, Elton Brand

New Orleans Pelicans coach Willie Green recalls his time playing for the Philadelphia 76ers and his time with Elton Brand.

Before he became coach of the New Orleans Pelicans, Willie Green carved out a solid career in the NBA. Selected by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 41st pick in the 2003 NBA draft, Green played 12 years in the league, seven of them with the Sixers.

Green averaged 9.4 points and 1.9 rebounds while starting 211 games for the Sixers during his career and he also started 12 of the 17 playoff games he played in for Philadelphia. He is a guy who did the defensive dirty work while also giving the team some solid guard play.

He was then sent to the then-New Orleans Hornets and as he made his return to Philadelphia on Tuesday with the Pelicans as a coach, Green had nothing but good things to say about the city and the organization.

“Even before I walked in, the moment the plane lands in Philadelphia, there’s a connection,” said Green. “This city, this organization, is a part of what raised me in the NBA and I’m grateful to have started my career here. Then walking through these doors just brings back so many memories and great times with my teammates, the staff here, and the fans.”

Green also played with current Sixers general manager Elton Brand in the 2008-09 season. That was Brand’s first season in Philadelphia and while his playing career with the Sixers wasn’t anything hugely special, but he was able to still make an impact on his teammates.

“Elton was great,” Green explained. “He took a lot of us young guys under his wing, kinda showed us the ropes, watched film with us, and he was everything you wanted in a star, a leader, and a role model at that time here in Philly.”

Other than his connection with Brand, there is also a connection with Sixers coach Doc Rivers for Green. He played for Rivers for two seasons with the Los Angeles Clippers and he had a big influence on Green getting into coaching.

“Doc has been great,” he stated. “I played for him with the Clippers, from that time on, he always predicted that I would have an opportunity to coach in this league and we stay on text messages, he’s been influential in my development as a coach, and we’ll go out and compete and after, we’ll continue to talk about basketball like we normally do.”

New Orleans got off to a tough start in the 2021-22 season as they started 2-14. Rivers was then texting Green to give him encouragement and the Pelicans began picking it up as they are now 18-29 on the season following a loss to the Sixers on Tuesday.

“Yeah, he has,’ Green said of Rivers communicating with him. “Especially early in the season when it was tough for our team. We didn’t have a great start and Doc was one of the coaches that I leaned on and we would text each other back and forth.”

Despite Green now being with the Pelicans, his contributions for the Sixers and his connections will always be there for him.

This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!

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