Former Philadelphia 76ers and now SMU head coach Larry Brown had a few words on Wednesday regarding the recent moves the Sixers have made. Brown, who is a great a basketball coach, led the Sixers in 2001 to the NBA Finals with a guy named the Answer, Allen Iverson. But this is not the 2001 Sixers, this is the present day 2014-15 Sixers and they are not very good. In fact, they are a few years away from competing.
Brown was asked about the Sixers tanking by the Philadelphia Inquirer and let’s just say he is not a fan of it at all.
“I hate what’s going on in Philly,” the Hall of Fame coach said Wednesday. “They don’t have a basketball person in the organization. It makes me sick to my stomach.”
As a basketball purest and fundamentalist like Brown is you can understand his frustration about the current regime in Philadelphia. He does not like what the organization is doing to the fans but does have high praise for current head coach Brett Brown.
“No, I wouldn’t do it. We wouldn’t lose. Brett can coach, he’s one of Pop’s guys,” Brown said, referring to San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich. “But what they are doing to that city to me is mind-boggling. That’s the greatest basketball city in the world with its fans and you want them to sit back and watch you lose.”
You can tell that Brown deeply still loves the city of Philadelphia and its fans. A few months of ago, Larry Brown was in Philadelphia to scout the best high school talent in the country at the Reebok Breakout Classic.
If you thought that the war of words was over at that point you were mistaken. Sixers CEO Scott O’Neill fired back at the former Sixers coach.
“You know, after seeing Larry Brown’s SMU team in the Final Four this year it was tough to hear those kind of comments,” O’Neil said on the radio show. “Was he in the Final Four this year?”
“How are they doing? How are they gonna be this year?” O’Neil said. “Nah, you know, I think it’s hard for people not in the market to understand what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. I think the good thing about Philadelphia is that the fans certainly get it.”
As you can see both gentlemen are stuck in their ways and both have opinions about where this franchise is heading. O’Neill even went to route of calling out Brown’s current team the SMU Mustangs which he has definitely turned around as they could have been in the NCAA Tournament last season but things did not work out that way and SMU made it into the NIT.
Now if you really thought things could not get worse it actually did. Brown had some words for O’Neill for talking about his SMU Mustangs this time via a phone interview with CSN Philly.
“Well, ask Scott where SMU was when I took the job. We were 315th and two years later, we’re a top-25 team. And who is Scott O’Neil by the way? I mean, what is his basketball background? And he ought to look at how I care about the team rather than criticize my job and what I’ve done.”
“Look at the Sixers where they were when I took that job and where they are today. How many coaches have been there since I left? You know I’ll talk to Scott O’Neil every day and be a resource for him every day.”
Brown in the phone interview even mentioned that he was not invited back when the Sixers retired Iverson’s jersey. It seems like there is bad blood brewing between the two or it reminds me of two battle rappers going against each other in a cypher.
Anyway, we will see who will have the last laugh in a few years when the Sixers draft picks come of age. Will Brown be right or will O’Neill and company prove that what they are doing is the right thing to do.
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