From a once rising star to a background character in the Philadelphia 76ers‘ front office, General Manager Elton Brand continues to be one of the more eligible candidates across the league for teams in search of executive leadership.
Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports named one Sixers front-office executive as a person to watch in the executive hiring market. In his piece where he identified the NBA’s next wave of front-office executives, Fischer spoke on the familiar name:
“Elton Brand was the Sixers’ chief executive until Philadelphia hired Daryl Morey as team president. Brand, still the Sixers’ GM and another Duke product, will continue to draw consideration from teams after handling only a limited run as the Sixers’ No. 1.“
Brand was the first overall selection in the 1999 NBA Draft. While his quite promising career was heavily impacted by injuries, he still averaged an impressive 15.9 points and 8.5 rebounds in over 1000 career games. Brand first joined the Philadelphia 76ers’ organization as a player from 2008-2012 and again in 2016 before retiring in October of the same year.
Just two months later, Brand was named a player development consultant for the Sixers and, within a year’s time, the general manager of the Delaware 87ers — now Blue Coats. A little over later and Brand was again promoted, this time to the position of general manager for the Philadelphia 76ers.
Despite his fast rise, his trajectory as a member of Philadelphia’s front office hasn’t been entirely upward. After Daryl Morey was hired as the franchise’s president of basketball operations in 2020, Brand to an understandable step back in terms of leadership.
While not exactly a backseat Charlie in his new role, Brand’s voice was not quite as loud for understandable reasons, which of course, leaves the door open for him to refind that voice as the head of another team’s front office. While most teams are set in that regard at this point in the offseason, the situations surrounding NBA franchises, from their players to their coaches and even their front offices, are constantly fluid. A team bringing on Brand could potentially do so by next offseason, if not sooner.
