Speaker 1: It's time to talk Sixers. Simmons off balance in an
Speaker 1: incredible bank shot is good here on the broadcast the
Speaker 1: official podcast of Sixers dot Com. If drive dom he
Speaker 1: goes in that slabs and oh man, what a play
Speaker 1: by it being. Now here's today's episode. What an awesome
Speaker 1: run during a breakout season it has been for the
Speaker 1: seventy Sixers. Brian Seltzer welcoming you back into another edition
Speaker 1: of the podcast. Could be back and putting out a
Speaker 1: new episode after a mini hiatus, but that is what
Speaker 1: fresh fatherhood will do to you. So at your patience
Speaker 1: during the last couple of weeks when the podcast episodes
Speaker 1: have not been quite as frequent, very much appreciated. So yes,
Speaker 1: the Sixers as of the recording date of this podcast,
Speaker 1: just tearing things up. Twelve consecutive wins, the longest winning
Speaker 1: streak active in the NBA. And what great timing it
Speaker 1: is that the Cleveland Cavaliers are coming to town in
Speaker 1: a battle for third place in the Eastern Conference standings
Speaker 1: heading into the final weekend of play in the regular season.
Speaker 1: To talk about where the Sixers are now, where the
Speaker 1: team enfranchise has come from. We're gonna sit down with
Speaker 1: assistant coach Billy Lange. He's been on Brett Brown's staff
Speaker 1: since day one, and that chat will come your way
Speaker 1: in just a matter of moments. If you have not
Speaker 1: listened to the podcast before, or perhaps more relevantly, if
Speaker 1: you not yet subscribe to our feed, you can do
Speaker 1: so in a couple of ways. You can head to iTunes, SoundCloud,
Speaker 1: or Stitcher or Google Play, type in Sixers podcast Network
Speaker 1: and that should take you to where you need to go.
Speaker 1: Just thinking about everything going on with the Sixers right now,
Speaker 1: it is truly amazing to think of where the team
Speaker 1: was and what it's on the cusp of achieving what
Speaker 1: it's already achieved a playoff berth forty eight wins, its
Speaker 1: highest total since two thousand and two two thousand and
Speaker 1: three at this late stage of the season, tremendous amount
Speaker 1: of credit all the way around, from the players, the
Speaker 1: coaching staff, to the front office. And to give us
Speaker 1: a little insights on what the build up has been
Speaker 1: like for the seventy Sixers over the last five years,
Speaker 1: we're going to welcome in seventy Sixers assistant coach Billy
Speaker 1: Lang and as we sit here now in the bowels
Speaker 1: of the center, Billy Court has been laid down. Seventy
Speaker 1: sixers have a huge game against the Cleveland Cavaliers later
Speaker 1: on on Friday night, April to sixth. This has got
Speaker 1: to be what it's all about. I know you guys,
Speaker 1: as coaches and much the players do. You take it
Speaker 1: one game at a time, but the next game up
Speaker 1: is a vital one for you guys, and just thinking
Speaker 1: back over the last now almost five seasons, for you
Speaker 1: to get to a point like this has got to
Speaker 1: be pretty fantastic. Wells, it is, and you appreciate it
Speaker 1: having been what we've been through, you know, building. I
Speaker 1: will tell you this, and this is not coach speak,
Speaker 1: and I'm not saying this to bring credence to the
Speaker 1: four years prior to this moment tonight to play Cleveland
Speaker 1: for third place in the East, but for coaches, for leaders,
Speaker 1: for people that like to build, for people that are
Speaker 1: passionate about what we do. There are many moments in
Speaker 1: those four years, some scene, some unseen that we were
Speaker 1: just as passionate and excited about those days, in those
Speaker 1: minutes and those moments as we are in anticipation for
Speaker 1: what is going to be an amazing atmosphere here tonight
Speaker 1: with Cleveland and Lebron And I mean, that's what you
Speaker 1: get to this point. Now everyone else gets to see it,
Speaker 1: and now you feel that energy off of everyone else.
Speaker 1: But I think, and I'd not even think the humility
Speaker 1: that Brett approaches every day with. And part of it
Speaker 1: is because what we've been through. But remember, Brian, we
Speaker 1: all accepted what we were going through. No one signed
Speaker 1: up for this in twenty thirteen without an idea of
Speaker 1: what it was going to be. We might not have
Speaker 1: known the depths of it, but we understood what we
Speaker 1: were undertaking. But it's left a real sense of humility,
Speaker 1: and you get to this point and you actually feel
Speaker 1: like you build it to come to this. So we're
Speaker 1: excited about it and we'll approach this day no differ.
Speaker 1: And then we did when we were just trying to
Speaker 1: win our game two seasons ago. We're gonna want to win. Well,
Speaker 1: that's the craziest part. Going into the game against Detroit
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, you guys had a shot to become just
Speaker 1: I think it was the fourth NBA team ever to
Speaker 1: win ten straight games by ten points or more. And
Speaker 1: then you think, yeah, it was only two years ago
Speaker 1: that there were just ten wins total on this season,
Speaker 1: and it's remarkable, and I agree with you. It's it's
Speaker 1: not just the coach speak that we're talking about that, oh,
Speaker 1: we came in positive and excited to work every day.
Speaker 1: I mean you guys, the enthusiasm for those of us
Speaker 1: that were lucky enough to observe practices and sit in
Speaker 1: and watch it was the truth. It was like the
Speaker 1: results didn't matter. And when I think back on it,
Speaker 1: and I just kind of wonder, like, how does that happen?
Speaker 1: How were you guys? Can you give a little bit
Speaker 1: more insight as to how you were actually able to
Speaker 1: let mine prevail over matter? You know, the word that
Speaker 1: is so popular right now in sports and in businesses
Speaker 1: and anything that involves a group of people is culture.
Speaker 1: And it's become like this mythological world word, like how
Speaker 1: do you find it? Do you pull it out of
Speaker 1: a bottle? And it isn't. It's two things. It's one people,
Speaker 1: you have to have people that represent the vision of
Speaker 1: what you want. And then two you've got to bring
Speaker 1: You've got to build in systems that like force you
Speaker 1: to function day to day. Right, So if you have
Speaker 1: positive people and then you're building in systems like our
Speaker 1: approach towards player development was a big one. The way
Speaker 1: that we make the guys learn about each other through
Speaker 1: some of the off court things that we do, the
Speaker 1: way we meet and how collaborative our meetings. I mean,
Speaker 1: these are things that we've Some of it's grown as
Speaker 1: we've gotten here, as Brett has expanded his leadership knowledge
Speaker 1: and our staff has gotten more familiar with each other.
Speaker 1: But a lot of this stuff was day one. And
Speaker 1: we have positive people And doesn't mean we didn't have
Speaker 1: dark days. That doesn't mean they were in some drives
Speaker 1: home and some flights where you're thirty thousand feet above
Speaker 1: sea level just wondering if your existence is even worth it.
Speaker 1: But by and large, ninety nine point nine percent of
Speaker 1: the time, this is a positive group of people. And
Speaker 1: it starts with bread and it seems like it's gotten
Speaker 1: across through all the years, the five years that you
Speaker 1: guys have been here, the players as well, like they
Speaker 1: have had the buying and that can't be an easy tasking.
Speaker 1: And when you guys have a couple more years on
Speaker 1: players and people of that vintage, so there may be
Speaker 1: some perspective where you can see not only things in
Speaker 1: the short term, but the long term. But I gotta
Speaker 1: think for some guys, you know, this is maybe they're
Speaker 1: only shot, or maybe it's a chance to if there's
Speaker 1: the availability of minutes to do more, show themselves more.
Speaker 1: Yet through it all, there's been a steady line of
Speaker 1: buying through just about everyone that's come through here. Again,
Speaker 1: when you have positive people and you have a vision,
Speaker 1: and that vision has a daily commitment towards it, one
Speaker 1: of the things that makes the vision become a reality.
Speaker 1: As relationships and people, oftentimes we don't give credit enough
Speaker 1: to players. They're very smart and a lot of these guys, man,
Speaker 1: I mean, they have been coddled, enabled, cond whatever word
Speaker 1: you want to throw that's negative from the time that
Speaker 1: they people knew they were going to be good to
Speaker 1: the time they get to the NBA. And they can
Speaker 1: sense when someone really cares about who they are and
Speaker 1: whether or not it's about you as a coach or
Speaker 1: about them as a person. And we have made it
Speaker 1: about them. So when we were losing, it would have
Speaker 1: been easy for Brett and the staff to look inward
Speaker 1: and think about how we looked. Instead, we'd put our
Speaker 1: energies into helping these guys because truth be told, they
Speaker 1: might not have had some of these situations had we
Speaker 1: not been going through our process. Right now, I don't
Speaker 1: know if I need to trademark Joe on the process though,
Speaker 1: But we just developed them, and we developed them as people,
Speaker 1: and Todd Wright and Jesse Wright in the sports science world,
Speaker 1: and all the coaches on the court and Brett coming
Speaker 1: at them with the analytics and the data just show
Speaker 1: incremental improvements. It just built in energy. It doesn't make
Speaker 1: it any easier, and it didn't make what we did
Speaker 1: any better. Sometimes. What it did is it made it manageable,
Speaker 1: and it gave a focus on a purpose to each
Speaker 1: day while we were going through some of those dark
Speaker 1: times Outside of things on the court, What were some
Speaker 1: other stuff that you guys built into the cultural aspect
Speaker 1: that kept things fresh, that kept play is mine and
Speaker 1: maybe not just players, but the entire staff basketball operation
Speaker 1: kept everyone engaged in their minds into it through some
Speaker 1: of the tougher time. But yeah, I would answer that
Speaker 1: in two ways. I think let's just talk about the
Speaker 1: staff part first, because I think that's the easiest part.
Speaker 1: It's not about us one. We do what we do
Speaker 1: because we love it and we do what we do
Speaker 1: because we're passionate about it. One of the things that
Speaker 1: I feel I was either fortunate or unfortunate, depending on
Speaker 1: how you looked at it, is I had been through
Speaker 1: some rebuilding things when I was the head coach at
Speaker 1: the Naval Academy and then when I went with Jay
Speaker 1: to Villanova in two thousand and one, and a little
Speaker 1: bit when I went back in thirteen, and those situations,
Speaker 1: there was always light at the end of the tunnel,
Speaker 1: and we always reached. You know, we got better at Navy.
Speaker 1: We had a nineteen win season in our fifth year.
Speaker 1: Nova is what they are. You know, you ended up
Speaker 1: getting Kyle Awry and Randy four Like you know, it
Speaker 1: turns so faith is the evidence of things unseen. But
Speaker 1: I was fortunate enough to see those things. So for
Speaker 1: me personally, that was easy to come in to do that.
Speaker 1: I think what Brett did for the staff as he
Speaker 1: made aid an environment of curiosity. So we were always
Speaker 1: looking for ways to get better, whether it was watching
Speaker 1: a close game that you know Miami had against Minnesota
Speaker 1: and like what would we have done in that situation.
Speaker 1: We were getting ahead of the storm before the storms
Speaker 1: even came in and you just come in fired up
Speaker 1: because you love the game with the players, you know,
Speaker 1: besides the encourt things which you were privileged to. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, it's again, it's relationships, man, it's it's a
Speaker 1: it's a brotherhood. We did team dinners, you know, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure other NBA teams do it, but maybe we
Speaker 1: did it a little bit more. Um, the way we
Speaker 1: did our film sessions, you know, the collaboration making a
Speaker 1: player be the coach of the day and lead the
Speaker 1: film session as opposed to just sitting there and listening
Speaker 1: to us all the time. The team breakfasts that we
Speaker 1: do where players have to present a topic in front
Speaker 1: of their teammates. You know, we've had people do things
Speaker 1: such as like our UFOs real and shit, college athletes
Speaker 1: be paid and some of the you know, social injustice
Speaker 1: events that have happened through our time. It was Nix
Speaker 1: Stauskis and it was awesome. It was really really good.
Speaker 1: So you know, you have to build those things in
Speaker 1: And let me tell you something, we're doing the same
Speaker 1: things even right now as we're on the cusp of
Speaker 1: fifty wins, and it just gives you a level of
Speaker 1: humility it's bigger than just basketball. And who's to say
Speaker 1: that those things that we're doing back then have not
Speaker 1: led to these fifty wins because we keep doing them
Speaker 1: and you just keep seeing the joy these guys have
Speaker 1: just to kind of crystallize and bring it all together.
Speaker 1: Then it sounds like the intent was always to get
Speaker 1: to this point and this day that we're at right now,
Speaker 1: where the franchise is, even if the results might not
Speaker 1: have been there to indicate at what point of the
Speaker 1: journey you guys are along. Well, I would say where
Speaker 1: we're at right now is definitely still not where we
Speaker 1: want to be, okay, And that's number one. Two. No
Speaker 1: one came here to do anything ordinary, No one, And
Speaker 1: you got you know, I tell my kids all the time,
Speaker 1: don't settle for what you already know you can do.
Speaker 1: You know, you can't have excellence and ordinary existing in
Speaker 1: the same vision, in the same sentence all the time.
Speaker 1: My kids are probably tired of hearing that, but it's
Speaker 1: really what we brought. And you got to remember that
Speaker 1: our head coach came from the pinnacle. You know. He
Speaker 1: came from not only a championship winning organization where the world,
Speaker 1: the external world sees what they're doing. But all the
Speaker 1: things that happen behind the scenes that are internal the
Speaker 1: culture building, he knows it, and he has not relented
Speaker 1: for one day. And we're blessed to have him as
Speaker 1: our leader. When we look at the last three weeks
Speaker 1: of what's been going on with the Sixers, give me
Speaker 1: some insight. I mean, how did this all come together.
Speaker 1: It's such an important stage of the season where here
Speaker 1: you guys are going in the Cavs game having won
Speaker 1: twelve straight fortunate scheduling. Can't we can't ignore that, But
Speaker 1: you guys have been really with all due respect the
Speaker 1: other teams, I mean, these have been pretty convincing wins.
Speaker 1: I mean, you guys have really seized control and left
Speaker 1: little Dad about that, all right, So if you ask
Speaker 1: me to put them in, like, you know, give me
Speaker 1: specific things, I'd say we've, in our opinion, we've had
Speaker 1: a fortunate schedule, and some of that fortunate schedule has
Speaker 1: been able to play here at home, and playing here
Speaker 1: at home is awesome. I got. It's funny when like
Speaker 1: Brett will come in or someone else will come in
Speaker 1: and say that was a playoff atmosphere. You know, my
Speaker 1: wife and I's first date where the playoffs here in
Speaker 1: two thousand and one, I think it was our second
Speaker 1: and heard they tell them a real big spender and
Speaker 1: I kill him. It's not even close. Like when you
Speaker 1: see what these fans are like when there is nothing
Speaker 1: else going on basketball wise, it's going to be insane.
Speaker 1: Tonight could reflect that to a degree. So the fans
Speaker 1: have been great. We've had a favorable schedule in terms
Speaker 1: of the opponents a little bit. You know, are the
Speaker 1: coaches really just you know, whether it's Lloyd Pierce or
Speaker 1: Jim O'Brien or Brett Brown or myself, Like, we have
Speaker 1: to get better, and I'm sure the players would like
Speaker 1: you to take your foot off the pedal for a
Speaker 1: little bit, but then when you don't take it off,
Speaker 1: they want it. They want even more. So we have
Speaker 1: found little areas we call it like zoom focus. We
Speaker 1: zoom in on our particular area and we're gonna beat
Speaker 1: it up until we see an improvement. We've got such
Speaker 1: an amazing analytic crew behind us that they can show us, like,
Speaker 1: you know, how much better we've gotten from here to
Speaker 1: there and where that would in the NBA had we
Speaker 1: done it over a thirty game sample size, and we
Speaker 1: just keep going at them with fresh things. You have
Speaker 1: to in eighty two games keep things fresh for an
Speaker 1: NBA player, and I think that's what we're doing. In
Speaker 1: one of the areas Brianette were proud about, I think
Speaker 1: we had nine straight games of thirty plus assists. You did, yes,
Speaker 1: tut the last eleven. I would love it to be
Speaker 1: eleven straight. And you know, the a game that we
Speaker 1: didn't we had twenty eight. So you know, these guys
Speaker 1: are finding a joy of playing with each other. That's
Speaker 1: unheard of at this point that the ball was zipping
Speaker 1: around and moving. So these guys are coming with great
Speaker 1: energy every day. It's funny because if you hear and
Speaker 1: I'm sure you guys don't listen to it, some of
Speaker 1: the external outside noise and people are like, well, what
Speaker 1: is the you know, the coaching staff done in this situation.
Speaker 1: It's like, well, it's essentially delivered upon everything that you
Speaker 1: guys set out to do from day one in August
Speaker 1: of twenty thirteen. It's the pace. It's building it through
Speaker 1: a defensive lens. It's sharing the ball and passing, it's
Speaker 1: developing players, embracing the three point line all that stuff,
Speaker 1: and right now it's almost this if like the hard
Speaker 1: work the system has now caught up to talent being
Speaker 1: brought in and it's like these guys with how hard
Speaker 1: they're playing, it's like and I'm kind of like a
Speaker 1: little bit of a superhero nerd, like I watched the
Speaker 1: Batman movies and all that, but it's like, you know
Speaker 1: when a superhero is like discovering his powers or her
Speaker 1: powers for the first time, and it's like, that's what
Speaker 1: it almost seems like has happened with this team. And
Speaker 1: it's like they don't want the games to stop coming.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter if you've got a home game against
Speaker 1: Brooklyn and a road game the next day against Detroit.
Speaker 1: It's like it's almost like you feel that energy of
Speaker 1: wanting more games to come, to continue to trying to
Speaker 1: prove well, you're hit on a lot of great things there.
Speaker 1: You know. One, it's a talent league, right, this is
Speaker 1: a joke time. It's a player's league. It is. You
Speaker 1: better accept that as a coach, you're gonna X and
Speaker 1: O all you want. The other coaches are really good, Okay,
Speaker 1: everyone in this league that coaches a basketball game or
Speaker 1: is on a staff is the best of the best
Speaker 1: of the best, bottom line, So your system's going to
Speaker 1: look a lot better when you're throwing out more talented players. Now,
Speaker 1: we have some very talented guys and guys that really
Speaker 1: are young and going to be better and better and
Speaker 1: better as time goes on. And then we've got some
Speaker 1: homegrown guys that we've developed that some people wouldn't mat
Speaker 1: might not have wanted, you know, a few years ago.
Speaker 1: So when you take the talent and then you have
Speaker 1: the familiarity of some guys within this defensive system and
Speaker 1: the offensive system and coaches concepts of pace and pass,
Speaker 1: these type of things can happen. You can get to
Speaker 1: this point and you are right there. They enjoy it.
Speaker 1: So we believe that we have an enjoyable basketball system,
Speaker 1: and now they just want to keep playing and playing
Speaker 1: and playing and almost test themselves every night when they
Speaker 1: go out there. It really was interesting back in September,
Speaker 1: I think it was this very first media availability going
Speaker 1: into the first practice of training camp, Brett came out
Speaker 1: and said, our goals to make the playoffs, and that
Speaker 1: based on previous years is something that you did not
Speaker 1: hear to that tone, is that something that you guys
Speaker 1: spoke about internally in the weeks leading up to that
Speaker 1: first practice, But how does its staff make the judgment
Speaker 1: call that this is the time now where we have
Speaker 1: a team that's capable of shouldering that type of comment
Speaker 1: as a leader. Goal setting is a real slippery slope
Speaker 1: because if you set something like we all have the desires, right,
Speaker 1: but if they're unrealistic, it's delusional. Okay. So we talked
Speaker 1: a lot about it, and I think the most important
Speaker 1: thing that we wanted to is we wanted a paradigm shift,
Speaker 1: which meant some of these mistakes, although we didn't like
Speaker 1: them in the previous four years, we were able to
Speaker 1: be more tolerant. Okay, coaches have to have some tolerance
Speaker 1: because it's not perfect. We wanted to make a statement,
Speaker 1: it's going to be less tolerant. Right We're gonna be
Speaker 1: less tolerant of these mistakes right now. We wanted to tell.
Speaker 1: We wanted to say we believe that if we're gonna
Speaker 1: go out and make the commitment we made the JJ Reddick,
Speaker 1: this is not for a circus. This is for like,
Speaker 1: we've got something real we want to do. We want
Speaker 1: to put pressure on Joel and his preparation and tell
Speaker 1: Ben that we're gonna hold you to a higher standard.
Speaker 1: And you know, Brett's type A. We're all type A.
Speaker 1: You know coach O'Brien's no nonsense, Lloyd, you've seen him
Speaker 1: coach the defense. You know my background, Brian, Like, we're
Speaker 1: type A. So it wasn't really hard. It was just
Speaker 1: how we delivered it right, because it would have been
Speaker 1: foolish for us to deliver it thinking that we were
Speaker 1: going to reach that that early. Think about it. We
Speaker 1: jumped out decent at the beginning and we went on
Speaker 1: a real skid there in December, I believe it was.
Speaker 1: But if we just said we're gonna be the third
Speaker 1: seed and gain home court advantage, like at some point,
Speaker 1: it might not have looked attainable. But we just kept
Speaker 1: showing them visuals like we're in ninth, we're in eighth,
Speaker 1: we're in seventh, we're two games out of six, and
Speaker 1: now it's attainable. So now they want to learn more.
Speaker 1: It's been masterful by Brett. You are responsible in part
Speaker 1: for working with the Sixers offense, and there has definitely
Speaker 1: been an infusion of talent there. But man, that part
Speaker 1: of the team's game has taken such a great leap
Speaker 1: over the course of this season. Brett said he wanted
Speaker 1: it to be I think, and maybe it changed at
Speaker 1: some point this year top fifteen offensive rating team and
Speaker 1: you guys are thirteen heading into the final week of
Speaker 1: the season. You had to salivate yourself seeing some of
Speaker 1: the talent that was coming in. How did you go
Speaker 1: about with the rest of the assistance in Brett, figuring
Speaker 1: out what would make the best type of formula and
Speaker 1: fit for the personnel that you have it. It's a
Speaker 1: great question, you know, we have so many Like you said,
Speaker 1: it's all the assistance. I mean, it's my main responsibility,
Speaker 1: but I would be foolish to think that it's just me.
Speaker 1: We've We've got a great development staff. You know, Kevin
Speaker 1: Young has done a terrific job. He was our g
Speaker 1: League head coach for a few years. And you can
Speaker 1: get the wisdom of Jim O'Brien and everything he's seen.
Speaker 1: So a lot of people have dug into it, and
Speaker 1: really a lot of what goes on behind the scenes
Speaker 1: with our analytics crew, it's like NASA in our building.
Speaker 1: Can you give me an example of that spilling any
Speaker 1: trade secrets. I won't spill trade secrets because I do
Speaker 1: like my job. What they're able to come with and
Speaker 1: just say, hey, are you paying attention to this? Or
Speaker 1: you ask them something that you have a hunch of
Speaker 1: and they're able to back it up or dispel it right,
Speaker 1: and and and the collaboration going back and forth. It's
Speaker 1: not like we're always given in either we're asked. The
Speaker 1: most skilled analysts are the ones that are gonna dig
Speaker 1: just one more step deeper than the other analysts. And
Speaker 1: our guys dig, I mean, they really really dig. That
Speaker 1: curiosity starts with our head coach and Brett, but it's
Speaker 1: really staff. So you know, we have broken our offense
Speaker 1: into like segments, Brian. We've got our half court make offense.
Speaker 1: We've got the first seven seconds of the shot clock,
Speaker 1: We've got the last seventeen seconds of the shot clock.
Speaker 1: Our analysts have been on us about offensive rebounding, which
Speaker 1: is really like a no no in the NBA because
Speaker 1: people don't think it's that important. But the amount of
Speaker 1: three point shots that's being taken, that's one the fact
Speaker 1: that Joel is going to be one of our leading
Speaker 1: shot takers in theory that takes an offensive rebounder off
Speaker 1: the glass unless he's following up his own two footers.
Speaker 1: So how we taught our four is how we use
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons at our one. I mean, these guys have
Speaker 1: been great for us. So I think our offensive evolution
Speaker 1: has one been talent, that is the main one, and
Speaker 1: then just a steady improvement in the areas where we
Speaker 1: felt like we could gain wins over a five to
Speaker 1: ten game clump. And I think since like Christmas, we've
Speaker 1: been like top five offense in the NBA. So if
Speaker 1: we settle in a thirteen, that tells you how low
Speaker 1: we were prior to Christmas time. But we're very proud
Speaker 1: of of our of our development there and too, I
Speaker 1: know I got off the subject here, sorry, but I
Speaker 1: think we have a home. We have a system, and
Speaker 1: when you add a guy like JJ Reddick, or you
Speaker 1: bring in a guy like Ben Simmons, or then you
Speaker 1: watch Joel's development, you have to figure out, like what
Speaker 1: additions do you need to put on that house to
Speaker 1: make it work. We can't squeeze them all in the
Speaker 1: one room. It's it's not that way in the NBA.
Speaker 1: It's just not like you. We believe we have a system,
Speaker 1: but we have to change that system if it's better
Speaker 1: for the players. And we've done subtle tweaks while keeping
Speaker 1: our house trying to remember the exact phrase that Brett
Speaker 1: Hugh's from talking about the Spurs back when you guys
Speaker 1: face them and just how they've been able to go
Speaker 1: about doing things over the years, and it might have
Speaker 1: been something like the system prevails. And even in these
Speaker 1: last couple of games with Joel Out and Dario Out
Speaker 1: keeps on rolling. I mean, you plug in guys like
Speaker 1: or sign Elio Silva, like Marco Bellanelli, great additions midway
Speaker 1: through the season that it seems like have helped take
Speaker 1: you guys to an even higher level. Yeah, be seeing
Speaker 1: his crew. That's Brian Colangelo and his crew deserve a
Speaker 1: lot of credit for bringing those two guys in because
Speaker 1: we were doing okay, you know, and then you all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, you're bringing a couple of pieces, Like
Speaker 1: you think it's going to take you one way, it
Speaker 1: could take you the opposite way. But they did their
Speaker 1: homework and they got the right guys. The system in
Speaker 1: which we play one it's predicated on the notion of passing.
Speaker 1: So no matter what we're running. We want our guys
Speaker 1: to pass and move the ball. We have stats that
Speaker 1: say anytime we hit a sweet spot Brian, between three
Speaker 1: and five passes, our shooting percentage jumps up like it's huge.
Speaker 1: How much it jumps from zero to one, to two passes,
Speaker 1: then three to five, you're shooting amongst the best percentages
Speaker 1: in the NBA. So when you plug, and I hate
Speaker 1: using plug because it makes like these sound these guys robotics.
Speaker 1: When you add the unique talent of Arson or Marco,
Speaker 1: and then you subtract Joe which none of us want
Speaker 1: to do, or Adario for a portion of time, you
Speaker 1: can the system will prevail if they have skill sets
Speaker 1: of passing and shooting and movement, which these guys have.
Speaker 1: And then Ben, the guy is just on another level
Speaker 1: where I mean, you can't even can you call him
Speaker 1: a guy. This young man, this kid is just on
Speaker 1: a different level right now. And he loves to pass,
Speaker 1: and he gets joy and seeing his teammates score. And
Speaker 1: that makes a world of difference for us when we
Speaker 1: lose two guys like Joe and Dario. When did you
Speaker 1: know that he might be able to have the type
Speaker 1: of impact that he has ended up having this season
Speaker 1: talking about Ben, you know, I mean, he did some
Speaker 1: things early that you were just like, this is incredible.
Speaker 1: But I would just say, prior to All Star Break,
Speaker 1: I just thought he was starting to trend to another
Speaker 1: area and he's comfortable and who he is as a
Speaker 1: basketball player. I mean, everyone's gonna te him he's got
Speaker 1: to shoot and he will get better. He's gonna get
Speaker 1: better fans. I mean each year he'll add something new.
Speaker 1: If he never shot a three point shot in his
Speaker 1: entire career, this guy can dominate because he's so unique
Speaker 1: as a passer and gifted physically and unselfish, and the
Speaker 1: other thing is just smart, Like he's really smart. So
Speaker 1: I think handed headed towards All Star Break, we kind
Speaker 1: of saw it, and then to me, he's just come
Speaker 1: back on a whole different level since we've done that
Speaker 1: something that Brett was talking about that without Joel. Towards
Speaker 1: the end of March, Ben has done a little bit
Speaker 1: more talking in huddles. The leadership part of his package
Speaker 1: has grown up. But how do you, guys, is that
Speaker 1: something that you as coaches take hands on roles and
Speaker 1: trying to nurture Over the chorus of a season. How
Speaker 1: do you try and teach leadership qualities. Well, great leaders
Speaker 1: are a lot of things, and one of those things
Speaker 1: is definitely authentic. Okay, so you can't force someone to
Speaker 1: be someone that they are not. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you know he can lead like a guy like Kyle
Speaker 1: Lowry or a guy like Avery Johnson where it's like
Speaker 1: outward and it's like you see it and you want it,
Speaker 1: and it's like you know, Kevin Garnett, like it's inspiring,
Speaker 1: it's motivating, you could feel it, right, maybe Ben will
Speaker 1: get there. I think the communication that we have daily
Speaker 1: with our players, whether it's an individual meeting or group meetings,
Speaker 1: you know, stuff like team dinners and team breakfast. Like
Speaker 1: when you make people talk, they did they develop a
Speaker 1: comfortability not only with their teammates but also in their
Speaker 1: own voice, which is really big for some of these
Speaker 1: young players. And they'll do like quizzes with these calls
Speaker 1: all the time. But post post shoot arounds will give
Speaker 1: these guys quizzes. I'm sure they hate it, but hey,
Speaker 1: if you've only gone to college for one year, you
Speaker 1: should be able to take quizzes at least for four.
Speaker 1: So you Ben has just developed a confidence in his
Speaker 1: voice and he uses it, and our players respect him
Speaker 1: because he's so unselfish. If he wasn't unselfish as a
Speaker 1: basketball player, I don't know how much they would. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure they would respect his talent, but his unselfishness
Speaker 1: and the fact that he's going to go out there
Speaker 1: and back it up by getting guys shots, and the
Speaker 1: fact that he really allows us to dig in and
Speaker 1: coach him gives him some credence as a leader. It's
Speaker 1: been fun to watch. I don't even think he's tapped
Speaker 1: the surface of what he'll be Eventually. He may be
Speaker 1: businesslike and even killed and smooth, but that is going
Speaker 1: back to your point of being someone being true to themselves.
Speaker 1: I mean, that is no doubt about it what he is.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can tell that that's just his nature,
Speaker 1: his demeanor, and it definitely seems to have served him well.
Speaker 1: The guy acts like he has been here, like done
Speaker 1: this ten times before going through an NBA season. It's
Speaker 1: amazing something that you were talking about earlier in dance
Speaker 1: around of it, But I did want to after you
Speaker 1: mentioned it, go back and revisit. I feel like maybe
Speaker 1: something that perhaps fans out there aren't totally aware of
Speaker 1: is that after Brett was hired in Nuggaus of twenty thirteen,
Speaker 1: it was really like a mad dash to assemble a
Speaker 1: coaching staff and for as much chemistry and camaraderie as
Speaker 1: we see from players in the court, the court of
Speaker 1: this coaching staff has really been intact for the last
Speaker 1: five years. What was it like for you guys getting
Speaker 1: together that first initial time, not having much familiarity with
Speaker 1: anyone at all, and then developing this coaching staff, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, Brett is a great communicator, so and we
Speaker 1: met a lot. Brett's family was not with him when
Speaker 1: he first moved. So when I say a lot that
Speaker 1: you got to bold capitalize and underline that with five
Speaker 1: exclamation points. We met a ton, and you know developed
Speaker 1: being a staff is you know, I just can tell
Speaker 1: you from my own experience of having to hire a
Speaker 1: staff and I was a head coach, like it's as
Speaker 1: hard as putting a team together. You gotta you know,
Speaker 1: someone told me one time, you gotta hire slowly, fire quickly,
Speaker 1: and it takes time. And you know, guys were men.
Speaker 1: We come in here with responsibilities outside of just coaching,
Speaker 1: whether it's families, or moving or you know, wives, you know,
Speaker 1: just real life stuff and it just takes time and
Speaker 1: it takes trust. That first staff was great, you know,
Speaker 1: Vance Wahlberg. We learned a ton from with Vance Wahburg.
Speaker 1: Chat Isskey he was offense, he did he helped with development,
Speaker 1: and he did some offense. He was just he was awesome.
Speaker 1: And chat Isskey brought an energy and a fire on
Speaker 1: the defensive end and it matched Brett's. And you know,
Speaker 1: and now Lloyd and I have been here the whole
Speaker 1: time for five years, and you know, our relationship is
Speaker 1: strong enough now because we've been with each other and
Speaker 1: we've seen each other work, and you know what challenge
Speaker 1: is not the right work because it would seem like
Speaker 1: we were all fighting. But it just it takes time.
Speaker 1: And then you go through losing, right, So it's already
Speaker 1: hard to get to know people, and then you put
Speaker 1: them in a situation where you're losing. And when people
Speaker 1: are losing, they just try to survive individually, Like what's
Speaker 1: this mean for me? Right? It's just human nature. And
Speaker 1: if I want to give us credit in one way,
Speaker 1: I'm again, we've all had the dark moments. There's no
Speaker 1: doubt I'm going to speak for myself, but I'll assume
Speaker 1: that everyone had them. We've stuck together by just communicating
Speaker 1: and showing up every day. In addition to being a
Speaker 1: bench coach, you've also won the hat of director of
Speaker 1: player development for the Sixers. So what formed your views
Speaker 1: on the essentials for developing individual players and, by the
Speaker 1: same token, using the individual paths to form collective development.
Speaker 1: But that's great, I mean, it's a great question. In
Speaker 1: my heart, I believe that players play because they love
Speaker 1: it right, and before they can think about, you know,
Speaker 1: setting the screen, they've dreamed of making the shot right.
Speaker 1: So there's a joy in development. People want to get better.
Speaker 1: I've seen it in my own kids. I've seen it
Speaker 1: in my experiences with Kyle Lowry. I've seen it at
Speaker 1: the Naval Academy with Division three players that became All
Speaker 1: League guys. Or Jay and his focus at Villanova working
Speaker 1: for her McGee. How much time we spent on just
Speaker 1: player development and shooting. I've been really blessed that I've
Speaker 1: always believed this, but that I've been around people who
Speaker 1: have cultivated that same development environment. And when we first
Speaker 1: got here, it's all we had to hang our hats
Speaker 1: on right was taking young players and developing them either
Speaker 1: for our future or for someone else's future that would
Speaker 1: attach to our future, whether it was through trades or anything.
Speaker 1: And you just saw how guys feel when they get better.
Speaker 1: It's energizing. So you know, I think one you have
Speaker 1: to recognize that a player's joy is attached a lot
Speaker 1: to how they feel about themselves. If you've got a
Speaker 1: joyful environment in any business, you can get a lot
Speaker 1: done be I mean a lot done. And we got
Speaker 1: a lot done because we had a joyful environment because
Speaker 1: people were just sewing into these players to get better.
Speaker 1: Then it has to zoom into something more focused. What
Speaker 1: does that player need? And a player has an arc
Speaker 1: right being The fans can't see this or the listeners.
Speaker 1: I hope people are listening, but people can't see me drawing.
Speaker 1: Did The arc just constantly changes? So where they start here,
Speaker 1: you got to focus on that. But as this starts
Speaker 1: to move, your focus on that player's development might be
Speaker 1: on a totally different skill set. And I think we
Speaker 1: did a good job. You know, I look at a
Speaker 1: guy like Robert Covington or a guy like TJ. You know,
Speaker 1: some things we did with guys like Jeremy Grant or
Speaker 1: Hillis Thompson. I mean, really, you know, Richard On Holmes,
Speaker 1: I mean these players, and it's gonna be the same
Speaker 1: for Ben and Joel. I mean, look at Joel right now.
Speaker 1: I mean he got better as he was sitting out.
Speaker 1: So we created time, we created a system to do it,
Speaker 1: and we just really believe that this is what makes
Speaker 1: players love the game. And you know, it was a
Speaker 1: great experience for me to do that. And now to
Speaker 1: watch Connor Johnson and Chris Babcock take that same model
Speaker 1: and move it forward even more has been really rewarding.
Speaker 1: Do you think there has ever been an assistant coach
Speaker 1: or any coach at any level that has been videotape
Speaker 1: more during pregame warm ups than Billy Lang. I do
Speaker 1: not know that. I you know, I'm not you know,
Speaker 1: I learned this when I was at Navy. I do
Speaker 1: not get on blogs or websites or you stay away
Speaker 1: because you're for everything you're gonna see that's good about you,
Speaker 1: You're gonna see some things that are bad. So I'm
Speaker 1: not on it. But it has been mentioned to me
Speaker 1: that my attempts to look like I'm guarding Marquell have
Speaker 1: made for some pretty fun internet fodder. And if people
Speaker 1: can get a laugh at that, so Ba and I'm
Speaker 1: happy to do as long as my kids don't say it,
Speaker 1: that's great. Just based on how Coach Brown came out
Speaker 1: and announced that Markuell would be rejoining the team prior
Speaker 1: to that Nuggets game, you could tell this is something
Speaker 1: that not just the players, the coaches, the entire organization
Speaker 1: really had something big invested in. Everyone seemed genuinely happy
Speaker 1: that he was able to get himself back to a
Speaker 1: point to get out there, and I mean he's looked
Speaker 1: great since coming back. Well, he's a great player. That's
Speaker 1: why you know, our organization drafted him number one because
Speaker 1: we believe that in him, and we still believe it
Speaker 1: in him, and that belief never wavered again. He goes
Speaker 1: back to faith is the evidence of things unseen. We
Speaker 1: knew what we felt about him, you know, first and
Speaker 1: foremost with Marquel. If you've spent any time with him,
Speaker 1: which I know you have, you're just blown away by
Speaker 1: his character, his humility, his appreciation for everything, and underneath that,
Speaker 1: he's got a lot of confidence in himself too, So
Speaker 1: he's got to find balance. It was a great moment
Speaker 1: for everyone, but more importantly forget everybody else. It was
Speaker 1: a great moment for mark Ll. You know, like we
Speaker 1: just did our jobs, so but for Markull, that journey
Speaker 1: of injury to now nursing yourself back to health and
Speaker 1: the length of time it was to get to that point,
Speaker 1: it's great. And like you said, he's played pretty well,
Speaker 1: so we're we're impressed with him, but we're not surprised.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, you asked who's listening to this podcast,
Speaker 1: Maybe you could also say the same for like who's
Speaker 1: staying up real late and watching some of those Utah
Speaker 1: Jass Summer League games back in July. But you coached
Speaker 1: that team. We all saw then everything about Mark L
Speaker 1: and I think it's been great for fans to be
Speaker 1: reminded of the package and skill set that he has
Speaker 1: at this late stage of the season. Brian, Yes, and
Speaker 1: more encouraging than that. And personally, I didn't understand this
Speaker 1: until the last four or five months when we were
Speaker 1: working as closely as we were. He's gonna get a
Speaker 1: lot better. I mean he's got in one way. You're like, man,
Speaker 1: he's got a long way to go in and one
Speaker 1: way You're like, Wow, this kid's got a lot left
Speaker 1: in him, and he really really does. But what you
Speaker 1: see immediately is how dynamic he is with the ball
Speaker 1: in a transition setting and in a half court setting,
Speaker 1: particularly in the pick and roll. And then the other
Speaker 1: thing that you know fans might not pick up on.
Speaker 1: I mean, to go into a game as a point
Speaker 1: guard and run an NBA offense when you haven't played
Speaker 1: in seventy games is like not easy, and he seamlessly
Speaker 1: has gone in. I was just watching our last game
Speaker 1: against Detroit this morning again getting Riady to make my
Speaker 1: edit for him, and watching him just physically, verbally and
Speaker 1: like really aggressively point urson Iliasova to the right spot.
Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, here we go. I mean, so his
Speaker 1: intelligence and he embraces that part of the game, of
Speaker 1: the organization of the point guard. We got a real
Speaker 1: gem on our hands. We look forward to seeing Ali grows.
Speaker 1: You'll probably do a whole different podcast on the next subject,
Speaker 1: but to me, at least, it does not seem unrelated
Speaker 1: that you have someone like Joel Embiid who sat out
Speaker 1: for a considerable period of time, came out did what
Speaker 1: he did. Yeses he had physical tools that other players
Speaker 1: don't have. Sure, but you know he came back and
Speaker 1: made an immediate impact. Ben Simmons what he's doing this
Speaker 1: year after missing all of last season, Mark kel sits
Speaker 1: out for sixty eight games, comes back with some confidence.
Speaker 1: So based on what we've seen with those three players,
Speaker 1: what do you make of that dynamic and how just
Speaker 1: being able to sit around, observe, soak some things in
Speaker 1: for a young player, how that could ultimately help them.
Speaker 1: We could write a book on this, and you're write
Speaker 1: because no one wants to be in this situation, whether
Speaker 1: it is as a coach or a medical staff, or
Speaker 1: a strength and conditioning staff or certainly the player. So
Speaker 1: you just learned a lot of things. I mean, one,
Speaker 1: these guys are all young. So every one of these
Speaker 1: guys we're getting at like a real early stages of
Speaker 1: their basketball developmental curve and excuse me, taking that year
Speaker 1: or two in some cases and using it to develop
Speaker 1: physically like your strength, your your body, you know, composition,
Speaker 1: how you move. I mean, Todd and these guys are amazing.
Speaker 1: Our strength and conditioning staff is really first class. I mean,
Speaker 1: these are really really good guys. It's embarrassing to think that.
Speaker 1: I try to get my guys lifting weights. When I
Speaker 1: was at the United States Merchant Marine Academy that was
Speaker 1: doing basically like a beach workout. But that helps these
Speaker 1: young players. I mean, like Ben Simmons, I don't know
Speaker 1: if he's doing what he's doing if it wasn't for
Speaker 1: that year of body development. You see it with Joel
Speaker 1: they get right, they learn how to eat. So that's
Speaker 1: one two. You realize, like the players, it's really debilitating
Speaker 1: to their minds, forget their bodies, like to just be
Speaker 1: out of something they love to do. This is how
Speaker 1: these guys identify themselves, whether it's right or wrong, it's
Speaker 1: the truth right, and we just invested time. Man. It
Speaker 1: just goes back to the very first question you ask me,
Speaker 1: just people, And if you care about people, then you
Speaker 1: care about relationships and you care about communicating. These players
Speaker 1: sense it because they know you have a job to do, okay,
Speaker 1: and they're seeing you go out of your way, out
Speaker 1: of your daily schedule to invest in a guy that
Speaker 1: like some we'd never know we'll play again. Some we
Speaker 1: don't know. Is it gonna take a year or six months?
Speaker 1: And we're just digging into them and you do it
Speaker 1: and they benefit from that year. It's like a red
Speaker 1: Shaw program. We don't do it on purpose, despite common
Speaker 1: belief amongst many competitors. But when it has happened, we've
Speaker 1: tackled it and we've gotten a little bit better. And
Speaker 1: we had it with New Orleans and you're right, So
Speaker 1: we've had it with New Orleans, we had it with
Speaker 1: Joe for two, we've had it with Ben, and we've
Speaker 1: had it a little bit with Marquel. So with each
Speaker 1: one of those situations, we've gotten a little bit better
Speaker 1: and a little bit smarter because of it. And it
Speaker 1: is crazy because you know, everyone thought that Ben Simmons
Speaker 1: coming out of LSU going into the first Summer League
Speaker 1: that he played, was a physical specimen, But if you
Speaker 1: just see some of the still pictures taken during that
Speaker 1: time from then to where he is now, it's like
Speaker 1: a completely not even close different past. A couple more
Speaker 1: quick things, how do you guys balance the here and
Speaker 1: now of trying to attain to legitimate and reachable goals
Speaker 1: in the regular season getting to fifty wins? Based upon
Speaker 1: what players have talked about, that sounds like it's something
Speaker 1: Brett has talked a lot about the home court advantage,
Speaker 1: but then also trying to get ready for the playoffs,
Speaker 1: because again, this is something else that for me, I
Speaker 1: didn't understand until I started in this position. There really is.
Speaker 1: Once you get to March, virtually no practice time in
Speaker 1: the NBA schedule, and that's like no shootarounds, no, because
Speaker 1: you got to get guys recovered on days when they're
Speaker 1: not games. So how do you balance the here and
Speaker 1: now versus what's to come in about ten days? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean one, I would say a lot of these
Speaker 1: goals that we're setting out right now of a fifty
Speaker 1: wins or home court, truth be told, they've been player driven.
Speaker 1: I mean JJ Reddick's voice in that locker room has
Speaker 1: been no, we're getting fifty. No, we're getting home court.
Speaker 1: You know, at the beginning of the year, we just
Speaker 1: wanted to make it right. And then I'm sure within
Speaker 1: that was like, well, if we fell one game out
Speaker 1: of eighth, not that we would be satisfied with that,
Speaker 1: but it would still be a lot of growth based
Speaker 1: on where we were last year. I mean, how many
Speaker 1: games we win last year, it's twenty seven. It's we're
Speaker 1: already twenty past that. I mean, that's a big jump.
Speaker 1: So a lot of the goal stuff has been played
Speaker 1: or driven and supported by Brad and we've created an
Speaker 1: atmosphere of not settling. I think I mentioned that a
Speaker 1: little bit earlier in this podcast. Then for them coaches again,
Speaker 1: it comes back to zoom focus, like if we don't
Speaker 1: think something is going to win in the most difficult situation,
Speaker 1: we're going to address it, like, hey, we were a
Speaker 1: little sloppy on that two for one. There, we've got
Speaker 1: to be better. Here's the clips, and you become you know,
Speaker 1: I've told a lot of my coaching friends, you know,
Speaker 1: high school coaching friends that I have and college coaching
Speaker 1: friends that I have, And this is going to sound
Speaker 1: really weird, but I really believe this coaching in the
Speaker 1: NBA personally, for me, has reminded me more of my
Speaker 1: days as a high school kid coach and a Division
Speaker 1: three head coach, because it's just teaching. You have to
Speaker 1: be a good teacher. The better you get as a teacher,
Speaker 1: your players, your students become better learners. Right. So the
Speaker 1: art of video it's more than just putting it up
Speaker 1: there and showing highlights like how you freeze frame something,
Speaker 1: how you sequence something, how you slow most something, how
Speaker 1: you use the laser, the feedback you have to get
Speaker 1: from the players, that eye contact you make with them,
Speaker 1: the repetitive themes, but in a different variety so they
Speaker 1: don't get bored. These guys learn how to learn. And
Speaker 1: because we can't get on the court right now as
Speaker 1: much as we would like to, the video teaching is
Speaker 1: just it's paramount. I can't. It's liken't literally going to
Speaker 1: class every day. So they might have left LSU in
Speaker 1: Kansas in Washington early, but I'm sure they've had more
Speaker 1: classroom sessions than they ever have. And that's really the
Speaker 1: balance right now, is like keeping the goals in mind,
Speaker 1: keeping the bodies fresh, and then make sure that you
Speaker 1: were teaching and then subsequently learning at a very very
Speaker 1: high level. You referenced that as far as big time,
Speaker 1: long term goals for this team, I think we all
Speaker 1: have an understanding what that ultimately is. But as someone
Speaker 1: who has lived and breathed this area your entire life,
Speaker 1: do you ever think that we'd be in an arrow
Speaker 1: where Four times now in the last ten years, and
Speaker 1: I guess it's three times in the last two years,
Speaker 1: there have been parades in Center City Philadelphia. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know that you obviously have a tie to a
Speaker 1: team that Twin two champion. You know, if Philly gets
Speaker 1: a bad rap, right, if you just here's one thing,
Speaker 1: if you want to give Philadelphia a Moniker, it's passion.
Speaker 1: They people are passionate here. They're passionate about everything. We're
Speaker 1: passionate about our food. We're passionate about our families. We're
Speaker 1: passionate about the South Jersey beaches. We're passionate about our
Speaker 1: Philadelphia sports teams. We're passionate. Sometimes that's gonna look pretty
Speaker 1: good and sometimes that's gonna look pretty bad. But there's
Speaker 1: no fight. There's no give up. I mean, it's all fight.
Speaker 1: There's no quit give up, there's no quit, and there's loyalty.
Speaker 1: And when you see these teams winning like this and
Speaker 1: you see the passion from these fans, I believe it
Speaker 1: helps the players compute at a high level. I think
Speaker 1: they sense it and feel it. I mean, look, we're
Speaker 1: at other venues in the NBA. I mean, there are
Speaker 1: some amazing venues in this league. This right here, this
Speaker 1: is off the hook. Right here it is And then
Speaker 1: you throw in the euphoria that the Eagles have provided,
Speaker 1: and then the way in Illanova has gone out and
Speaker 1: represented the city of Philadelphia and really just been the
Speaker 1: best team in college basketball for the last four or
Speaker 1: five years. This is a great time to be from Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: but it's always been great to be from Philadelphia. Well
Speaker 1: put from a passionate man himself, Billy Lang always very
Speaker 1: much appreciate it. Thanks so much. I respect the fact
Speaker 1: that you were able to ask this many questions without
Speaker 1: falling asleep, given the fact that you and your wife
Speaker 1: just had a twin boy and twins boy and girl.
Speaker 1: So thanks for the time today, Brian. So we'll do
Speaker 1: the podcast on young players getting at least one year
Speaker 1: off next and then maybe after that we can do
Speaker 1: tips about twin parents. You got a Brian. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: not quite sure what part of the demographic the basketball
Speaker 1: and twin parenting podcast would hit, but who knows. Maybe
Speaker 1: at some point after completion of what hopefully we'll be
Speaker 1: a successful postseason run for the seventy six ers, that's
Speaker 1: a territory that we can venture into. Billy Lang awesome
Speaker 1: as always, much thanks to him. Much thanks to you
Speaker 1: for a checking out the podcast. We're gonna have some
Speaker 1: more stuff coming your way between now and whenever this
Speaker 1: thing wraps up, but definitely next week. We're back at
Speaker 1: you as we wrap up the regular season and look
Speaker 1: ahead to around number one of the playoffs. Every weekend too,