The Sixers held exit meetings in Philadelphia the day after the Game 7 loss. The defeat remained raw, but there were so many questions to address. Would Brett Brown be back? Also what about free agents like Jimmy Butler, Tobias Harris, and J.J. Redick, and did they even want to return, and if they did was Josh Harris willing to spend the money to sign them? And would Ben Simmons ever learn to shoot and would Embiid ever start taking care of his body the way other MVP candidates do and did he and Simmons get along and what would Elton Brand do in his first off-season as GM?
Embiid was one of the first to address reporters. He was asked how he felt about Brown as a coach.
“I heard about all these rumors and I thought it was bullshit,” he said. “He’s done a fantastic job. He’s been there through everything, and this year, I think he grew even more as a coach. He learned, we all learned, it’s hard when you’ve got five guys that can score the ball and do a lot of things on the basketball court.”
He added, “He’s an amazing coach, a better person, and I got a lot of love for him.”
Embiid spent the next twelve minutes answering questions about how he could improve. His responses sounded different than in the past. They were mature. Introspective. He sounded like someone who had just discovered how much more learning he had to do, and who was eager to get started. His regular-season marks of 27.5 points per game and 48.4 percent shooting had plummeted to 20.2 and 42.8 in the playoffs, and he didn’t offer excuses. He talked about the specific ways—rolling to the basket, scoring outside of the post—in which he needed to expand his game. He acknowledged the need to take better care of his body so that he could be in better condition come playoff time. He expressed a willingness to sit when the Sixers played on consecutive nights. He said the season had taught him that winning, real winning, required real sacrifices.
The rest of the morning played out as expected. Tobias Harris and Butler both said they’d like to return, but that no decision had yet been made. Simmons, who during the Raptors series had told ESPN’s Zach Lowe that his role was “definitely not” to spend chunks of games stationed around the basket and off the ball, refused to concede that he needed to work on his jumper. “I think for me, I just want to get better all around and just become a better, more efficient player and just keep growing as just a better player,” he said.
Later that night, Josh Harris put the Brown rumors to rest. He informed ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that Brown would be returning, and that the two of them and Brand had already begun planning the team’s off-season.
“I think a lot’s been made about this in the press, and truthfully you can’t believe what you’re reading or what you’re hearing,” Harris told reporters the next day, seemingly forgetting that much of what was read and heard were words he had uttered. “Brett’s job was never in jeopardy. We were very focused on the playoffs, and yeah, we declined to get into a lot of questions that people were asking us, but I have a great relationship with Brett. He’s been our coach for six years. I’ve talked with him constantly through the playoffs, including last night in terms of planning for the future. We have been and continue to be excited that Brett is leading us.” He added that “a lot of noise in the press” was “probably kicked up by our competitors.”
Brown had endured so much since coming to Philadelphia. The ride wasn’t always smooth, and there had been valid questions raised along the way. “This is my sixth year in Philadelphia. I have been fired every one of these years,” he joked to reporters during his press conference. “Every single one of these years, somebody has me not coming back, and it will happen again next year, early. This is just the way it works in my industry, in this city.” He’d been hired to lead a losing team, and now, 314 regular-season losses and three GMs later, he’d proven that he could lead a winning one too. He’d juggled schemes. He’d mixed rotations. He’d outmaneuvered opposing coaches. He’d united clashing players. He’d almost beaten the champs.
Sitting there, two days removed from a heartbreaking loss, coming off back-to-back 50-win seasons, and with his future bright, Brown, hair now all gray and face bearded—fans would joke that he’d aged like a president—marveled at how far he and the Sixers had come.
“When I put my rearview mirror hat on and I remember going to PCOM, we were at PCOM. Think about that. I had one court,” he said. “I wouldn’t even go down to my players’ locker room. I was ashamed.”
* * *
Two months later, on a Friday in July, Josh Harris and Brand were back in the same room and once again looking out at dozens of reporters. The Sixers had spent the previous month tweaking their roster, first in the draft, then in free agency, and now it was time to celebrate the off-season.
“I’m excited to welcome all the gentlemen on this dais,” Josh Harris said, sitting front and center once again, between Brand and six players.
The moves had been mostly finalized thirteen days earlier, on the last day in June. Tobias Harris was signed to a five-year (near-max) $180 million deal. Butler, whom Brown had lobbied not to re-sign, was sent to the Miami Heat as part of a sign-and-trade. In return the Sixers received Josh Richardson, a twenty-five-year-old, 6-foot-6 defensive stud who had averaged 16.6 points per game the previous season and who, with two years and just over $20 million left on his contract, was signed to one of the league’s most team-friendly deals. With the extra cap room, and by letting Redick walk, the Sixers were able to throw a four-year, $109 million deal at five-time All-Star Al Horford and pry him away from the Celtics. They were also close to announcing a five-year, $170 million extension for Simmons.
“In addition to having Joel and Ben, two of the brightest stars in the NBA, we’re moving forward with an elite starting five, an elite core,” Harris said, speaking like the chief basketball decision maker that he now was. The days of him describing the Sixers as “a really exciting business opportunity,” like he had during his introductory press conference after buying the team in 2011, were long gone. He’d made good on his investment—Forbes valued the Sixers at $1.7 billion in 2019, nearly four times the $280 million he and his partners had paid for them back in 2011—but now was interested in something else.
“I will, and we will work tirelessly and do everything we have to do and be all in on delivering a championship to the city of Philly,” he said.
Six years after Sam Hinkie’s arrival, the Sixers were close to achieving this goal. So much had transpired since then. Some highs and so many lows. There were All-Stars traded away and losing streaks and injured lottery picks and more losing streaks and happy fans and angry fans and more veterans traded away and so many second-round picks and more injured lottery picks and more losing streaks and more veterans traded away and TMZ clips and angry agents and more losing streaks and coups and manifestos and even happier fans and even angrier fans and Joel “The Process” Embiid and mysterious shoulder injuries and burner Twitter accounts and playoff wins and playoffs losses and more playoff wins and more playoff losses and while it hadn’t exactly gone according to Hinkie’s plan, here, six years later, his vision had been fulfilled.
The roster was locked in. Hinkie had planned for all the losing to net the Sixers multiple stars—they now had Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. Hinkie had planned for all the accumulated assets and cap flexibility to net them high-level free agents—they now had Al Horford and Tobias Harris. There had been bumps along the way, and casualties along the path, and mistakes, so many mistakes. Nerlens Noel, Jahlil Okafor, and Michael Carter-Williams—young men who were given millions of dollars and little direction—were barely hanging on to NBA careers. Dozens of other had come and gone. Hinkie had lost his job and possibly his NBA future. But he had been hired to build a championship-level basketball team and the Sixers had become exactly that. In exchange for three years of losing (plus one in Bryan Colangelo–designed purgatory), they had received the previous two 50-win seasons plus a team with Embiid, Simmons, Harris, and Horford all signed for at least four more years. Maybe they’d win a title. Maybe they’d win two. Maybe they’d never make it to the Finals. Maybe Embiid would break down. Such things were results, and results were determined by things like luck and bounces and other areas outside of human control. All you could do was position yourself properly and trust the process. Hinkie had. And now his Process was complete.