Wednesday morning, former head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers and current coach of the Southern Methodist University (SMU) Mustangs, Larry Brown, joined Anthony Gargano and the Morning Show to talk basketball.
When Gargano asked Brown what direction the Sixers should take in next month's draft, knowing the Sixers already have big men in Joel Embiid and Nerlens Noel, the 27-year, former NBA coach had the following to say:
"I always think you should take the very best player. Whenever we wrote on the board, we used to write by position, during the draft, the best players. Then we would write needs, and then we would write the best players period. I always used to tell our staff that we have to go for the best player period, and not even think about our needs unless they were very, very close."
Brown, who coached the Sixers for six seasons from 1997-2003, then went on to recount a situation when he and his staff deviated from the philosophy of picking the best player. This occurred during the 1998 NBA Draft, when the Philadelphia had the eighth overall selection:
"When we lost Paul Pierce at #10, we had him rated at #2. We took Larry Hughes because we thought we had a need. The reason we took Larry is, I promised him when we interviewed him, if he was there we would take him. I would never do that again."
| Round 1 | Shooting | Per Game | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Pk | Tm | Player | College | Yrs | FG% | 3P% | FT% | MP | PTS | TRB | AST |
| 1 | 1 | LAC | Michael Olowokandi | University of the Pacific | 9 | .435 | .597 | 26.3 | 8.3 | 6.8 | 0.7 | |
| 2 | 2 | VAN | Mike Bibby | University of Arizona | 14 | .436 | .379 | .802 | 33.9 | 14.7 | 3.1 | 5.5 |
| 3 | 3 | DEN | Raef LaFrentz | University of Kansas | 10 | .466 | .363 | .711 | 25.8 | 10.1 | 6.1 | 1.1 |
| 4 | 4 | TOR | Antawn Jamison | University of North Carolina | 16 | .451 | .346 | .724 | 34.8 | 18.5 | 7.5 | 1.6 |
| 5 | 5 | GSW | Vince Carter | University of North Carolina | 17 | .440 | .374 | .799 | 33.2 | 19.4 | 4.8 | 3.6 |
| 6 | 6 | DAL | Robert Traylor | University of Michigan | 7 | .474 | .167 | .577 | 14.3 | 4.8 | 3.7 | 0.7 |
| 7 | 7 | SAC | Jason Williams | University of Florida | 12 | .398 | .327 | .813 | 29.4 | 10.5 | 2.3 | 5.9 |
| 8 | 8 | PHI | Larry Hughes | Saint Louis University | 13 | .406 | .309 | .757 | 30.8 | 14.1 | 4.2 | 3.1 |
| 9 | 9 | MIL | Dirk Nowitzki | 17 | .475 | .383 | .879 | 35.5 | 22.2 | 7.9 | 2.6 | |
| 10 | 10 | BOS | Paul Pierce | University of Kansas | 17 | .447 | .371 | .806 | 35.5 | 20.7 | 5.8 | 3.7 |
Pierce went on to be a ten-time All Star with the Boston Celtics. The 17-year veteran is still playing, and is currently a member of the Washington Wizards where he started in last night's defeat to the Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals of the NBA Playoffs.
While Brown would most certainly select Pierce in the draft if he had the opportunity to go back in time and do so, he still has no regrets regarding the team he put together around superstar Allen Iverson:
"I feel good that we honored our commitment. We ended up getting Tyrone Hill, who was a great piece for our team. I still think if Larry wasn't impatient, he would have worked out great for us. He had a great rookie year. We thought we would get a big guard to play point, but guard bigger guards. But, we had Eric [Snow] and Aaron [McKie] at the time. That was a tremendous domination because we could play small. If we got somebody hurt, we were always in a position to somebody in. I always think a team needs three point guards. Larry had a great rookie year. He wanted to start, but it was hard to put Snow or McKie on the bench.
It ended up working out great for us because Tyrone was a tremendous contributor, but then you gave up Paul Pierce. I really believe when you trust your scouts and trust the information you get and what you believe in, take the very best player. I've said this a number of times. Assets win in the NBA. Assets are players, draft picks and contracts. You have to figure out how to manage all of those things."
Later on in the interview, Brown shared his views of the current Sixers team as they move forward in the rebuilding process:
"[The Sixers] are going to get a great player. With Noel and Joel, they have tremendous asserts right there. I'm curious to see if Noel and Joel can play together. I think people don't realize, Joel has tremendous skill and a great IQ. Noel is so athletic, and I think blocking shots and rebounding balls is the vital thing for every NBA team."
Listen to the full interview:
Larry Brown on 97.5 The Fanatic with Anthony Gargano and the Morning Show
Matt Rappa (@mattrappa) is a contributor to Sixerdelphia.com.
