Brand New

IT MIGHT BE JUST THREE YEARS SINCE HE RETIRED, BUT ELTON BRAND IS ALREADY DOING BIG THINGS AS THE GM OF THE SIXERS. HIS LATEST MOVES MIGHT LEAD THE FRANCHISE TO REACH THE GOAL THEY’VE BEEN CHASING FOR SO, SO LONG.

- Michael Bradley

ELTON BRAND is all about adapting these days, and that’s important. Because part of him still thinks like a player.

“Go play where you want to play when your contract is up,” he says.

But since he is no longer on the court and instead of serving as Sixers GM, Brand is really now a company man. The attitude he developed during his 17-year NBA career must be replaced by a more team-centric approach.

“I want to hold on to players as long as I can,” he says.

Brand understands the irony of his statements. He also knows that his days as a mid-range shooting, low-post loving big man are gone. He’s management now, and that means he must go from being a mentor to youngsters to serving as their boss.

It has been a quick ride. Brand retired after the 2015-16 season, during which he played in a mere 17 games for Philly and scored 70 total points, a long way from his days as a two-time All-Star and double-double machine who earned the nickname “Old School Chevy” for his throwback game. Brand never complained about his limited role with the Sixers, because he knew he wasn’t there to put up 20 and 10. He came to the franchise to help a group of players survive the absolute darkest days of “The Process,” a full-on tanking job designed to acquire draft choices and ultimately the pieces necessary to compete for a title. As that season rolled on, Brand understood that his future was no longer in uniform.

After the previous season, Mike Budenholzer, then-president of basketball operations for the Hawks, offered Brand an assistant GM job. Brand turned him down, saying instead that he wanted a “last hurrah.” He got that with the Sixers, along with a strong argument that it was time to move on.