After achieving their life-long dream of appearing in the NBA, ensuing careers of the vast majority don’t go as planned. Only one team can win a title each season, only one player can be his team’s best, and there are only so many opportunities for those in the background to surge to the foreground.
Elton Brand fully understands that humbling reality. And despite the masses’ inevitably confused reaction to his shocking un-retirement, it’s an acknowledgement of those circumstances and past failures that has prompted Brand to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers.
The two-time All-Star announced the news in a refreshingly candid piece published at Sports Illustrated’s The Cauldron on Monday morning. Why is Brand leaving the comfortable confines of post-playing life behind? As the 36-year-old so eloquently explains, he never paid it forward over the first over 16 seasons of his career – and will make up for that shortcoming with the perpetually youthful and struggling 76ers.
The truth is, my decision to return to the NBA isn’t about money, and it isn’t about rings. It isn’t even about me, really, although every athlete would like to go out on his or her own terms. It’s about repaying what’s owed, about making sure that the young men who follow in my footsteps get what they’re entitled to (and what I haven’t always given them).
It’s not so much that I failed the guys I was tasked with mentoring over the years; it’s that I barely even tried. I never took the time to share the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s writing with them. I never sincerely answered their questions about what David West was trying to warn them about during NBPA meetings. I didn’t tell them why they should be reading Etan Thomas’ essays.
I was simply too busy following the NBA blueprint that had been engrained in me from the beginning: Play well, keep your head down, offend as few people as possible, and get paid. Now, here in Philadelphia, my adopted hometown, I’m excited to have a chance to do things differently — be a positive influence and help the organization get back on track.
Brand specifically notes a desire to help Jahlil Okafor navigate the perils of NBA life as a chore of his return. “I’m not coming here to hold Jahlil’s hand — or anyone else’s, for that matter — because that’s not what he needs,” he writes. “But I do believe my experience and wisdom can benefit him and my other young teammates.”
The possibility of Philadelphia signing a highly-respected veteran to inject a sense of leadership to the locker room was broached when the franchise gave Jerry Colangelo a prominent front-office role in December. Brand notes that he spoke with oft-derided general manager Sam Hinkie at length before signing with the Sixers, and that both are excited about the prospect of “hopefully, eventually” helping their team win.
But the lure of a championship has nothing to do with the former No. 1 overall pick coming back to the league. Brand readily admits that he didn’t receive a contract offer as a free agent last summer, and has “come to accept” a Larry O’Brien Trophy isn’t in his playing future. He just wants to do for Philadelphia what so many veterans did for him, and is “an athlete who wasn’t quite ready not to be an athlete.”
The Sixers, to be sure, aren’t quite ready to win – and the presence of an experienced, estimable personality like Brand won’t immediately help them do so. The long game is still what matters here, though, and Philly needs all the help it can muster to learn virtues of success that will eventually be manifested on the court.
And with an obviously optimistic and committed Brand in the fold, it’s fair to say this downtrodden franchise has taken a step toward doing just that.
(Via The Cauldron)
