Philly's Once Ambitious General Manager Search Finally Lands On, Of All People, Elton Brand

Not too long ago the 76ers were courting Daryl Morey to replace disgraced former general manager Bryan Colangelo, in a sign of the organization’s lofty ambitions for the next chapter of Sixers basketball. By that same token, not too long ago the Sixers were hoping to court LeBron James and Paul George, and wound up with Wilson Chandler and Mike Muscala. In a continuation of that theme, the Sixers today finally settled on Colangelo’s replacement:

There’s no reason this should necessarily fail, but it’s a long, long slide from hoping to land one of the NBA’s most successful and respected general managers all the way to promoting a guy who was playing for the 76ers just two years ago. Brett Brown will now answer to a man he coached on the historically awful 10–72 squad of the 2015–2016 season. Brand went almost straight from a Sixers roster spot to a player development role in late 2016, and was made general manager of their developmental league team last August. So Brand’s, uhh, meteoric rise through the organization at least includes some experience having the title of general manager.