Brett Brown

Brett Brown
Brown in 2015
Philadelphia 76ers
Position Head coach
League NBA
Personal information
Born (1961-02-16) February 16, 1961
South Portland, Maine
Nationality American
Career information
High school South Portland (South Portland, Maine)
College Boston University (1979–1983)
Coaching career 1988–present
Career history
As coach:
1983–1984 Boston University (graduate assistant)
1988–1993 Melbourne Tigers (assistant)
1993–1998 North Melbourne Giants
1998–1999 San Antonio Spurs (basketball ops.)
2000–2002 Sydney Kings
20022013 San Antonio Spurs (director of player development/assistant)
2013–present Philadelphia 76ers
Career highlights and awards

As head coach:

As assistant coach:

Brett William Brown (born February 16, 1961) is an American professional basketball coach who is currently the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA. Brown is a former college basketball player who previously served as an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs. He also has extensive experience coaching in Australia, having been the head coach of the North Melbourne Giants and Sydney Kings of the NBL and the Australia men's national team.

High school

Born and raised in Maine, Brown first played organized basketball in Rockland, was a star guard in junior high school there, and when his father was hired as the head coach.[1] Brown transferred to South Portland where he became a star basketball player at South Portland High School, from which he graduated in 1979.[2] Brown was a two-year first-team all-state guard in 1978 and 1979, and led his team to a 27–0 record and a State Class A Title in his senior year.[2] Both Brown and his father, Bob Brown, who was South Portland's head coach during Brown's playing career, are inductees to the New England Basketball Hall of Fame.[3]

Collegiate career

Brown played four seasons at Boston University under Rick Pitino. He was named the Lou Cohen MVP in his sophomore year and served as the team captain in both his junior and senior seasons. During his senior year in 1983, the Boston Terriers made their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 1959.[2] By the time he graduated, Brown had compiled the fourth-most assists in school history.[3] After graduation, he served as a graduate assistant under coach John Kuester.[4] Brown also took a sales job with AT&T, saving enough money to take a backpacking trip to Oceania in 1987.[2]

Coaching career

NBL

While in Australia, Brown made a cold call to Melbourne Tigers head coach Lindsay Gaze, ultimately leading to a job offer and Brown making Australia his home.[2] He served as a Tigers assistant coach until 1993, when he became head coach of the North Melbourne Giants. Brown was named NBL coach of the year in 1994, when he led the Giants to a championship victory over the Adelaide 36ers. He served as head coach of the Giants until 1998, before taking a job with the San Antonio Spurs.[3] Following his stint with the Spurs, Brown coached the Sydney Kings from 2000 to 2002.[3][5] Overall, he was a head coach for 278 NBL games, winning 54 percent of the time.[6]

Australia national team

He was an assistant coach with the Australia national team between 1995 and 2003, serving during the 1998 FIBA World Championship and the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games.[7] He was hired in 2009 to serve as head coach of the team, and held that position until 2012.[7] Under Brown, Australia finished 10th in the 2010 FIBA World Championship.[7] In the 2012 Olympics, he led Australia to the quarterfinals, where Australia was eliminated by the United States, who won the tournament.[3]

San Antonio Spurs

Brown with the Spurs in 2010

After attending a basketball camp run by Brown and Andrew Gaze, San Antonio Spurs general manager R. C. Buford hired Brown as an unpaid member of the Spurs' basketball operations department for the 1998–99 lockout-shortened season.[2] In 2002, after a stint with the Sydney Kings, he again took a position with the Spurs, this time as the team's director of player development.[3] Buford credited him with focusing attention on the team's lesser-known players, creating a consistently strong bench; this philosophy would continue to benefit the Spurs even after Brown left his role as player development director.[8] He was promoted to as an assistant coach in September 2007, working under coach Gregg Popovich.[9] Popovich calls Brown "one of his best friends," and Brown would later incorporate many of Popovich's concepts into his own offensive system.[10] He played a major role in signing Australian guard Patty Mills, who played under him for the Australian national team.[7] Brown was a member of the Spurs organization for four of their championship-winning seasons.[3]

Philadelphia 76ers

Brett Brown is interviewed at a 76ers fan meet and greet in 2014

During the 2013 NBA off-season, Brown was offered a chance to succeed Mike Budenholzer as the top assistant on Gregg Popovich's staff, but in August 2013, he chose instead to become head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers.[11] He inherited a team in "total rebuilding mode" led by new GM Sam Hinkie,[12] and the Sixers were only able to woo Brown away from the Spurs after offering a 4-year guaranteed contract.[13] His appointment made him the 24th head coach in the history of the franchise,[12] and the second person to be a head coach in both the NBL and the NBA, following Mike Dunlap. The Sixers were the youngest team in the league during Brown's first year, and one of the youngest of all time.[14] During the second half of the 2013–14 season, the Sixers would lose 26 games in a row, tying the record for longest NBA losing streak.[15] Sixers point guard Michael Carter-Williams won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award in 2014, and credited Brown for helping him win the award and grow as a player.[16]

On December 11, 2015, the 76ers signed Brown to a contract extension.[17] On May 31, 2018, the 76ers signed Brown to another contract extension, coming off their first playoff appearance since 2011. In the aftermath of the Bryan Colangelo Twitter fiasco, Brown would also be named the interim President of Basketball Operations for the team on June 7, 2018.

Head coaching record

NBA

Legend
Regular season G Games coached W Games won L Games lost W–L % Win–loss %
Post season PG Playoff games PW Playoff wins PL Playoff losses PW–L % Playoff win–loss %
Team Year G W L WL% Finish PG PW PL PWL% Result
Philadelphia 2013–14 821963.2325th in AtlanticMissed playoffs
Philadelphia 2014–15 821864.2204th in AtlanticMissed playoffs
Philadelphia 2015–16 821072.1225th in AtlanticMissed playoffs
Philadelphia 2016–17 822854.3414th in AtlanticMissed playoffs
Philadelphia 2017–18 825230.6343rd in Atlantic1055.500Lost in Conference Semifinals
Total 410127283.3101055.500

NBL

Legend
Regular season G Games coached W Games won L Games lost W–L % Win–loss %
Post season PG Playoff games PW Playoff wins PL Playoff losses PW–L % Playoff win–loss %
Team Year G W L WL% Finish PG PW PL PWL% Result
North Melbourne 1993 291415.4838th312.333Lost in Quarter Finals
North Melbourne 1994 33258.7581st761.857Won NBL Finals
North Melbourne 1995 342311.6762nd853.625Lost in NBL Finals
North Melbourne 1996 281513.5367th202.000Lost in Quarter Finals
North Melbourne 1997 352015.5713rd523.400Lost in Semi-Finals
North Melbourne 1998 30921.30011thMissed playoffs
North Melbourne total 18910683.561251411.5601 NBL championship
Sydney Kings 2000–01 311813.5815th312.333Lost in Quarter Finals
Sydney Kings 2001–02 301416.4677thMissed playoffs
Sydney total 613229.525312.3330 NBL championship
Total 250138112.552281513.5361 NBL championships

Personal life

Brown met and married his wife, Anna, in Australia. They have two daughters and a son.[3] The family resides in Voorhees, New Jersey. Brown is currently a Global Ambassador for the Big Bang Ballers, an international not-for-profit which uses the game of basketball to fight youth poverty and social disadvantage worldwide.

References

  1. "Midcoast Sports Hall of Fame to induct 5". Bangor Daily News. Retrieved 2018-04-22.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Jordan, Glenn (2 July 2013). "Brett Brown hot name in coaching". Portland Press Herald. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Brett Brown". NBA.com. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  4. Hofmann, Rich (22 July 2013). "A Closer Look at Brett Brown". Philly.com. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  5. "Former NBL coach gets top job". NBL.com. 15 August 2013. Archived from the original on 13 April 2014. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  6. Nagy, Boti (2 April 2009). "New Boomers coach Brett Brown to take charge in Las Vegas in July". Fox Sports. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Ward, Roy (29 October 2012). "Brett Brown resigns as Boomers coach". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  8. Goldsberry, Kirk (2 June 2014). "The Foreign Legion in San Antonio". Grantland. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
  9. "Brett Brown Named Assistant Coach". NBA.com. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  10. Dominguez, Raul (25 March 2014). "Popovich feels bad, but not sorry, for Brett Brown". CSNPhilly. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  11. Lowe, Zach (22 January 2014). "Q&A: Brett Brown on His Spurs Past, His Philly Future, and Going for a Jog". Grantland. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  12. 1 2 AP (14 August 2013). "76ers hire Brett Brown as coach". ESPN.com. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  13. Wolf, Jason (15 August 2013). "Brett Brown demanded 4-year contract to coach Sixers". USA Today. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  14. Feldman, Dan (7 April 2014). "Extra Pass: How Brett Brown and his 76ers have embraced their youth". NBC Sports. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  15. Golliver, Ben (30 March 2014). "Sixers blow out Pistons, snap record-tying losing streak at 26 games". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  16. Lynam, Dei (5 May 2014). "ROY Carter-Williams grew with coach Brett Brown". Comcast Sportsnet. Archived from the original on 15 June 2014. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
  17. "Sixers Extend Brett Brown's Contract". NBA.com. December 11, 2015. Retrieved December 18, 2015.
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