Speaker 1: There's eight games left until the playoffs, and then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden one of your assistants leaves. What do
Speaker 1: you do? I've learned under a coach who has navigated
Speaker 1: the most radical, most debated rebuilding the history of professional sports,
Speaker 1: and I take a lot from this. My relationship with
Speaker 1: Brett Brown has been one of God's most tremendous blessings
Speaker 1: on my life, and I thank Brett for his confidence
Speaker 1: and commitment to me. Billy Lang is now the head
Speaker 1: coach of the Saint Joseph's University Hawks. Look at how
Speaker 1: the seventy Sixers have gone about replacing him on this
Speaker 1: episode of the broadcast. Follow out There, seventy Sixers pod people,
Speaker 1: Hope you are doing great. Three seed all wrapped up
Speaker 1: down in the Eastern Conference. Team beat the Chicago Bulls
Speaker 1: convincingly needed to see a nice, solid victory, and the
Speaker 1: Sixers got that on Saturday at Chicago. The Boston Celtics
Speaker 1: then lost to the Orlando Magic on Sunday at ted Garden,
Speaker 1: and as a result, the Sixers they were able to
Speaker 1: secure their magic number and the three seed for a
Speaker 1: second straight year in the Eastern Conference playoffs. We won't
Speaker 1: know until Wednesday night, the regular season finale. Whether the
Speaker 1: six will play either the current sixth seed Brooklyn Nets
Speaker 1: or the Orlando Magic, which are right on the nets heels,
Speaker 1: they could wind up in a tie when it's all
Speaker 1: said and done. They could flip flop spots. Who knows.
Speaker 1: They're currently equal in the standings, but Brooklyn has the
Speaker 1: head to head tiebreaker, So in other words, stay tuned.
Speaker 1: Still got some time before we sort out who it
Speaker 1: will be the seventy Sixers open up with in the
Speaker 1: first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. To subscribe to
Speaker 1: our podcast feed, We're gonna be all over it come
Speaker 1: the postseason. Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, SoundCloud, tune in,
Speaker 1: anywhere you get your favorite podcast. Pocketcast is another one.
Speaker 1: Just go there, type in Sixers podcast network that will
Speaker 1: take you to our feed. My goal was to put
Speaker 1: this piece together for our previous episode of the podcast
Speaker 1: last week, but sometimes the best laid plans are just
Speaker 1: that they lay dormants. They don't go anywhere. But I
Speaker 1: still wanted to get around to doing this commentary at
Speaker 1: some point, so I figured why not now when the
Speaker 1: schedules in a bit of a lull, there's a holding pattern.
Speaker 1: Sixers have got the three seed locked up and there's
Speaker 1: two games of no real consequence left on the schedule.
Speaker 1: But what is of consequence, especially as things move forward,
Speaker 1: is how the look on the sideline for the seventy
Speaker 1: Sixers has changed. It is not every day that a
Speaker 1: team is in position to identify a new assistant with
Speaker 1: two and a half weeks to go in a regular season,
Speaker 1: especially with the playoffs right around the corner, but such
Speaker 1: was the case for the seventy Sixers. After Billy Lang
Speaker 1: essentially had to go right, he could not turn down
Speaker 1: the opportunity to become the new head coach of Saint
Speaker 1: Joseph's University. Is background, where he's been, what he's all about,
Speaker 1: it was the perfect opportunity. First, we want to give
Speaker 1: a huge congrats to Billy. He's been so helpful here
Speaker 1: on the pod over the years, and we are thrilled
Speaker 1: that he's got this chance to lead one of the
Speaker 1: proudest programs in the country. The day the news was announced,
Speaker 1: he coached his final game with the Sixers, an important
Speaker 1: win over the Brooklyn Nets brought with it a special
Speaker 1: ring of the seventy Sixers. Postgame, a locker room victory beat.
Speaker 1: By the time Billy Lange was done pulling the rope
Speaker 1: attached to the miniature metallic bell, he was so dassed
Speaker 1: with the water from aquafin to bottles emptied on him
Speaker 1: by T. J. McConnell and some other players. Then, after
Speaker 1: an appreciative fist pump and embraced with Brett Brown, it
Speaker 1: was time for some sincere, heartfelt reflection. It's been a
Speaker 1: blessing to coach you guys. It's a real out. I
Speaker 1: grew up in the city at the be here and
Speaker 1: just be any sort of part of it, whether it
Speaker 1: was the process or this championship running. You guys are
Speaker 1: capable of going learning from you guys, helping develop some
Speaker 1: of you guys, being with you when you were injured,
Speaker 1: working for you, learning from you guys, being a part
Speaker 1: of a support staff that loved my family whenever I
Speaker 1: needed him. This is a blessing. Take advantage of what
Speaker 1: you got. Man. This will never be It won't always
Speaker 1: be here found you Philadelphia seventy six Ers. With that
Speaker 1: Lang's and pactful tenure with the seventy six Ers had
Speaker 1: come to a close when a Brett Brown's original hires
Speaker 1: Lang's influence can't be overstated. He was as instrumental in
Speaker 1: fostering a winning culture behind the scenes as he was
Speaker 1: in changing the club's fortunes on the court. Every ebb
Speaker 1: and flow of Brett Brown's coaching tenure Lang experience too.
Speaker 1: He had Brown essentially knew nothing of each other outside
Speaker 1: of professional reputation before they joined forces in twenty thirteen,
Speaker 1: and a successful partnership grew from there. We all accepted
Speaker 1: what we were going through. No one signed up for
Speaker 1: this in twenty and thirteen without an idea of what
Speaker 1: it was going to be. We might not have known
Speaker 1: the depths of it, but we understood what we were undertaking.
Speaker 1: But it's left a real sense of humility, and you
Speaker 1: get to this point and you actually feel like you
Speaker 1: build it to come to this. He's the son of
Speaker 1: a coach. He was a head coach at I think
Speaker 1: twenty three. He knows Philadelphia in this area intimately. He's
Speaker 1: highly respected by coaches all over the place, especially in
Speaker 1: this area. He's a man of integrity. I think the
Speaker 1: pairing of him in Saint Joe's for sort of even
Speaker 1: spiritual reasons makes sense. I think he's just gonna take off,
Speaker 1: and I think that the timing in his life is
Speaker 1: ripe to accept this and grab it right by the
Speaker 1: throat and take off with it. Lang wasn't only appreciated
Speaker 1: by his coaching peers, but players as well. He was
Speaker 1: the type of coach who would in value over for
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving dinner if you had nowhere to go, even if
Speaker 1: you are a Canadian. Here's a text we got from
Speaker 1: former seventy six or Nick Stauskus, who is Canadian, right
Speaker 1: after the news of Lang's hiring by Saint Joseph's became official. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Billy had us over for Thanksgiving a few years ago.
Speaker 1: The food was amazing. We got to spend some time
Speaker 1: with his wife and kids. I'm really happy for Billy.
Speaker 1: He was one of the hardest working and passionate coaches
Speaker 1: I've played for. He has the kind of personality and
Speaker 1: spirit that's well suited for college head coaching. So I
Speaker 1: think Saint Joseph's made a great decision. There were plenty
Speaker 1: other acts of kindness that Lang was involved with as well.
Speaker 1: For one player, he'd serve as a supportive companion to
Speaker 1: a place of worship. I'm so happy for hum. He's
Speaker 1: my family to me who's been here since I got here.
Speaker 1: Now I'm really close to his whole family, kids, his wife,
Speaker 1: then clude people. We sometimes you spend time together and
Speaker 1: then someone to time we go to church, so we've
Speaker 1: gone closer the past fall five years. I'm extremely happy
Speaker 1: for him. That's big Tom. I told him that definitely
Speaker 1: gonna go check him out. Whatever. Octo Lang provided a
Speaker 1: complete package. But just like that he was gone and
Speaker 1: the Sixers were left in need of a replacement. We
Speaker 1: found out Delay is going to be taken the job
Speaker 1: at Sanchez. How do you address on the fly, like
Speaker 1: who do you see stepping up and taking all different responsibilities?
Speaker 1: Right um, rarely like when you're about to lose somebody
Speaker 1: when things come up, do you feel like this makes sense?
Speaker 1: Like it's a natural fit? What was the fit who
Speaker 1: made the outcome of this scenario such a win win?
Speaker 1: If you're the type of fan who follows these sort
Speaker 1: of things closely, you might have noticed not noticing Jim
Speaker 1: O'Brien much this season. The respected wise veteran coach took
Speaker 1: on a new role this year as Brett Brown Senior Advisor.
Speaker 1: As a result, he willingly gave up a spot of
Speaker 1: the front row, so Brown couttet more flexibility structuring this
Speaker 1: year's staff. Jim O'Brien, the former seventy six ers head
Speaker 1: coach before last year, oversaw the franchises winning a season,
Speaker 1: says the two thousand and one finals run. He was
Speaker 1: Brown's answer to have Jim O'Brien, you know, still with
Speaker 1: me in a conciliatory type role, has been with me
Speaker 1: all season to be able to take, you know, a
Speaker 1: former head NBA coach and a man of his experience
Speaker 1: that has been with me and knows me in the
Speaker 1: system and the plays and say, okay, coach, you know
Speaker 1: you're now coming in and sitting on the front of
Speaker 1: the bench again and assuming you know, sort of that
Speaker 1: leadership area with a defense it all fits. Really, is
Speaker 1: it that palatable? Listening to Brown talk about O'Brien, it's
Speaker 1: clear there's a high degree of respect that Brown holds
Speaker 1: for the kind yet no nonsense Philadelphia native. There's a trust,
Speaker 1: even a reverence. Perhaps, Notice how Brown refers to O'Brien
Speaker 1: as coach with a capital C. Last summer, when O'Brien
Speaker 1: was modifying his responsibilities, Brown was open to just about
Speaker 1: any idea that O'Brien had. There was only one result
Speaker 1: that Brown wanted more than anything, and that was to
Speaker 1: keep the sixty seven year old Saint Joseph Alum involved anyway. Anyhow,
Speaker 1: I sort of explored with him, how can I hold
Speaker 1: on to you? Because he's a wealth of knowledge. He's
Speaker 1: different than anybody on my staff. He's a man's man,
Speaker 1: you know. It was all about how do we keep
Speaker 1: you in the program and still sort of somebody that
Speaker 1: I personally can go to as a sounding board. He
Speaker 1: is my sort of confidant and you know, type of
Speaker 1: mentor type of conciliatory, type of role. Jim O'Brien's life
Speaker 1: has essentially been built out of peach baskets, hardwood, and
Speaker 1: perforated orange leather. His basketball pedigree is lengthy, prestigious, and
Speaker 1: a reflection of his roots. His path reads like a
Speaker 1: history book of Philadelphia hoops. I've been in love with
Speaker 1: this game of basketball for many, many years, and it
Speaker 1: all started when I was eight years old. Having coaches
Speaker 1: that had a tremendous amount of enthusiasm taught the values
Speaker 1: of the game, but most importantly, taught the fundamentals of
Speaker 1: the game. Here are some of the Highlights from O'Brien's resume,
Speaker 1: mark Word Award winner at Roman Catholic, three year starter
Speaker 1: at Saint Joseph's during the Mike Banton days, playing for
Speaker 1: Jack McKinney, a season as a coach at Maryland under
Speaker 1: the legendary Lefty Drizzelle, then back to his alma mater
Speaker 1: on the staff of Harry Booth before joining former Penn
Speaker 1: player and coach Dick Harter at Oregon. Later on, O'Brien
Speaker 1: would link up with Rick Patino, first with the New
Speaker 1: York Knicks, then at Kentucky, and also with the Boston Celtics,
Speaker 1: where O'Brien ultimately replaced Patino as head coach. O'Brien took
Speaker 1: the top job with the seventy six Ers in two
Speaker 1: thousand and four, led the franchise to a forty three
Speaker 1: and thirty nine record. He then coached the Pacers for
Speaker 1: four seasons and served as a Dallas assistant twenty twelve
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen. O'Brien belongs to both the Saint Joseph's and
Speaker 1: Big Five Hall of Fame. He's married to the daughter
Speaker 1: of the iconic Jack Ramsey. He's a bona fide part
Speaker 1: of our City's great basketball lord. If I had a list,
Speaker 1: maybe the top five players by position that I've ever
Speaker 1: coached in the NBA might look something like this. Alan
Speaker 1: Irvison at the point, Paul George at the two, Paul
Speaker 1: Pierce at the three, Dirk Navitsky at the four, and
Speaker 1: Patrick Gowing at the five. Well, what's interesting about these players?
Speaker 1: They all love the game, but they all need to
Speaker 1: be taught the fundamentals of the game, almost on a
Speaker 1: weekly basis. So if O'Brian wasn't on the bench the
Speaker 1: past five months, what was he doing exactly? Just about
Speaker 1: everything else that comes hand in hand with being an
Speaker 1: assistant coach. O'Brien still is in office at the seventy
Speaker 1: six ers training complex and captain. He still tended practices
Speaker 1: and shoot arounds on a regular basis and took part
Speaker 1: in coaches meetings. His voice most definitely carried away. He
Speaker 1: just wasn't seen as much publicly. That is, and this
Speaker 1: is why O'Brien's whereabats during games. We're back in the
Speaker 1: locker room. Coach has the benefit back here of a
Speaker 1: delayed monitor. My first year in San Antonio, when I
Speaker 1: sat behind the bench, I had access to a delayed
Speaker 1: monitor right behind pop And what a six second window
Speaker 1: gives you is just incredible ammunition. Like you're right. You
Speaker 1: think you see something in a game, and you look
Speaker 1: at the monitor and you know he either gets confirmed
Speaker 1: or something different. And so coach lives in home games
Speaker 1: back here with a delayed monitor, and you know, we
Speaker 1: come in at halftime and he's got a wealth of
Speaker 1: information or things happen in a game, and he will
Speaker 1: send out different thoughts as the game's unfolding. I'm always
Speaker 1: like in private meetings with him, just he and I
Speaker 1: just talking. After every game, I get an incredible report
Speaker 1: of like what he saw, and so it's a collaborative
Speaker 1: type of thing that he and I especially have. He's
Speaker 1: a mentor to a lot of our young coaches. He's
Speaker 1: in every one of our coach's meetings, you know, and
Speaker 1: speaks when he wants to be heard. And so the
Speaker 1: transition from Billy Lang to Jim O'Brien is really quite seamless.
Speaker 1: Given how long O'Brien's been at it, over four decades
Speaker 1: in the business, it really does seem natural to see
Speaker 1: him back out there engaging with fellow coaches. Calm yet
Speaker 1: deliberately delivering instructions and tips to players. There's no doubt
Speaker 1: O'Brien's doing what he was put on this planet to do.
Speaker 1: The passion continues to burn because he really doesn't have
Speaker 1: to do with this. Does he like his career? He
Speaker 1: speaks for itself. So what do you think like Petson's
Speaker 1: own at this stage of his life. I mean three things. First,
Speaker 1: the love of the game, he loves basketball. To the relationships,
Speaker 1: you know, staying around a team, interacting with each other.
Speaker 1: And I think three the competition, you know, the joy
Speaker 1: of competition. To get him back with me on the
Speaker 1: bench after Billy Lange left is fantastic. Instead of scrambling,
Speaker 1: the seventy six Ers coaching staff has just kept on
Speaker 1: keeping on. The routines and rhythms have stayed the same.
Speaker 1: For Brett Brown, having assistance who know their X and
Speaker 1: o's is of course important, but being surrounded by good,
Speaker 1: trustworthy people, whether that's Billy Lang or Jim O'Brien, that
Speaker 1: is what Brown considers to be the ultimate backup plan.
Speaker 1: I have a great staff. I think that we have
Speaker 1: bases covered. I say that out of respect for the
Speaker 1: people that I have and also recognize that Billy brought
Speaker 1: a lot to the table, there's no doubt about that.
Speaker 1: But I just feel like it's a rare thing that
Speaker 1: has happened. It's going to be good for everybody, and
Speaker 1: I think that that we have bases covered all things considered,
Speaker 1: a good spot for the seventy six ers to be
Speaker 1: in at such a late stage of the year. Thanks
Speaker 1: for checking out this episode of the podcast. Next time
Speaker 1: we speak to you on the Pot it will be
Speaker 1: a playoff gave you audition coming out later this week.
Speaker 1: Should be sure to check your feeds and stay tuned.
Speaker 1: Talk to you that see him