Speaker 1: We are back up and running in seventy Sixers podcast land,
Speaker 1: and there is a lot to discuss since we last spoke.
Speaker 1: The team welcomes some new faces and brought back a
Speaker 1: couple familiar ones too. We're doing everything we can to
Speaker 1: bring another NBA championship to the city of Philadelphia. Believe
Speaker 1: that we discussed the Sixers summer acquisitions with one of
Speaker 1: the great ambassadors of Philadelphia sports. I really liked the
Speaker 1: Sixers chances here to win the East, and I like
Speaker 1: the idea of what Elton's doing. There is no doubt
Speaker 1: they viewed this as a window right now to win
Speaker 1: it all with this group. I'm all in. That's ESPN's
Speaker 1: Kevin A. Gandhi and he's our guest on this episode
Speaker 1: of the broadcast from the Intersections of broad and Cast Streets,
Speaker 1: a very famous intersection here in the Delaware Valley. I'm
Speaker 1: Brian Seltzer. Great to be back with you for another
Speaker 1: episode of the podcast. It's been a little bit and
Speaker 1: I apologize for that, but I did want to make
Speaker 1: sure that the first episode of the podcast we did
Speaker 1: after the big press conference a week and a half ago,
Speaker 1: with the new and returning players. The seventy sixers acquired
Speaker 1: during free agency, came with a guest who brought some
Speaker 1: gravitas to match the significance of the subject matter that
Speaker 1: we are going to discuss, and I think we've got
Speaker 1: someone who fits that profile in Kevin Gandhi of ESPN.
Speaker 1: We're gonna speak to Kevin about free agency and the
Speaker 1: seventy six ers pickups in just a moment. But, as
Speaker 1: we usually do here to begin the podcast each and
Speaker 1: every episode, a friendly reminder that to subscribe to the podcast,
Speaker 1: you can go to a bunch of different places, chief
Speaker 1: among them Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, SoundCloud, tune in,
Speaker 1: type in Sixers podcast Network that will take you to
Speaker 1: our feed, and please do become a subscriber right now
Speaker 1: if you give me, oh, let's say about no more
Speaker 1: than three minutes, and we gonna run through some sound first,
Speaker 1: and then we will dial up Kevin Na Gandhi for
Speaker 1: our chat about the seventy sixers. But let's run through
Speaker 1: what happened on July the twelfth at the seventy six
Speaker 1: ers training complex, starting with Elton Brand, the man who
Speaker 1: took the lead in putting together the very impressive group
Speaker 1: of seventy Sixers on stage, Kyle O'Quinn, Raoul Nato, Tobias
Speaker 1: Harris james enis the third. Al Horford and Josh Richardson
Speaker 1: This group, paired with are All stars Joel embiid Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons puts us in a position to compete, not just now,
Speaker 1: for years to come. And a big reason why is
Speaker 1: because another All Star is being added to the group
Speaker 1: and Al Horford he was soaking it all in on
Speaker 1: stage when he was introduced at the training complex and Camden.
Speaker 1: From his seat, he looked out across some massive literally
Speaker 1: ground to roof windows across the Delaware River and at
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia skyline. It was a pretty nice sight. First
Speaker 1: of all, this view against excited I'd be back there
Speaker 1: to the city. I'm hyped. I'm ready to go. I'm
Speaker 1: just learning, you guys know right now. Horford, a five
Speaker 1: time All Star to Bias Harris, had an all Star
Speaker 1: caliber season last year. You know, he was only, of
Speaker 1: course with the seventy six Ers for three months, but
Speaker 1: that was enough time for the veteran to love the experience,
Speaker 1: which was obviously a big factor or a driving factor
Speaker 1: in his desire to return. For me, it was just
Speaker 1: a win win to come here, to be in a
Speaker 1: situation where I can continue to develop, and to be
Speaker 1: somewhere to win for many years to come. Obviously, we
Speaker 1: hope this is I hope to finish my career here,
Speaker 1: hopefully and God willing. We've heard from Horford, We've heard
Speaker 1: from Harris. Let's now hear from another guy who was
Speaker 1: on the dais during that introductory press conference who figures
Speaker 1: to be in the starting lineup, and that would be
Speaker 1: Josh Richardson, acquired in the signing trade with Miami heat.
Speaker 1: He attributes his growth over the last four years in
Speaker 1: the NBA to how he was molded coming up playing
Speaker 1: at the University of Tennessee, and he's looking forward to
Speaker 1: continuing that development now that he's in Philadelphia. I think
Speaker 1: it'll be fun to just be able to almost compete,
Speaker 1: to almost like see who can be in a gym
Speaker 1: the most, see who can be who, or see how
Speaker 1: much better we can get over over d seasons. Love
Speaker 1: that type of talk. We're going to talk about that
Speaker 1: and more with Kevin Na Gandhi. But Hey, even though
Speaker 1: it may feel like summer is beginning to dwindle now
Speaker 1: that we're terrifyingly already almost through the third week in July.
Speaker 1: There are still opportunities to sign your kid up or
Speaker 1: if you're eligible in terms of age, yourself for seventy
Speaker 1: six ers basketball Camps presented by Rothman Orthopedics and powered
Speaker 1: by ESF. At is seventy sixers Camps dot com for
Speaker 1: all their latest information and details about the remaining camp sessions.
Speaker 1: Could be put on a wait list for one in
Speaker 1: Springfield at Cardinal O'Hara. There's another one coming up at
Speaker 1: the Church Farm School in Exton, and also at Competitive
Speaker 1: Edge Sports out in King of Prussia. All the dats
Speaker 1: at seventy six Erscamps dot com. He is one of
Speaker 1: Philadelphia's native sons. He is an outstanding ambassador for the
Speaker 1: city sports scene. He hosts the six pm Sports Center
Speaker 1: on ESPN and a bunch of other stuff on ESPN.
Speaker 1: He is Kevin Na Gandhi Kevin. How's the summer treating you?
Speaker 1: It's been good, Roan. You know there's no off season,
Speaker 1: you know, I know the NBA doesn't have an off season.
Speaker 1: Here at work, we don't have an off season. So
Speaker 1: once the season ends for the NBA, we go right
Speaker 1: in the covering everything. You know, that is of course
Speaker 1: the draft, that is of course free agency, that is
Speaker 1: the summer league. And then you know, things still hanging
Speaker 1: up in the air with the Chris Paul trade or
Speaker 1: potential trade, whether he's gonna move or not. And then
Speaker 1: and then we go right into what we're a week
Speaker 1: away from training camps, some have opened up in the NFL.
Speaker 1: We're dealing with the Open Championship. So it's been good.
Speaker 1: But we never have an off season here at ESPN.
Speaker 1: It's crazy that even within the individual sports, there's like
Speaker 1: no slowdown time. And of course I'm going to ask
Speaker 1: you about the Sixers and their summer activity, but what
Speaker 1: is the sports center newsroom like when a big bomb
Speaker 1: drops from a news standpoint, whether it's whoa Jo one
Speaker 1: of the other many ESPN staffers, like with all the
Speaker 1: stuff that's been going on in the league, just take
Speaker 1: me inside the newsroom and what the reaction and atmosphere
Speaker 1: is like. It's exciting. Um, there's a lot of oh oh,
Speaker 1: and then and then you know you're you're, you're It's
Speaker 1: kind of like being at an educated sports bar. And
Speaker 1: when I say that that whoever's talking to you about
Speaker 1: something they they know the background, they know how it
Speaker 1: led up to this because we follow it day in
Speaker 1: and day out. You've got to be up to even
Speaker 1: on your days off. You've got to be up to
Speaker 1: the news on every single thing. So we always have
Speaker 1: a background or a different perspective. And the cool thing
Speaker 1: mind for us is that we all come from different places.
Speaker 1: So if something's happening, like in San Francisco, one of
Speaker 1: my producers on the six P is from you know,
Speaker 1: he's a big Bay Area guy. I'm asking about the
Speaker 1: forty nine, I'm asking about the A's I'm asking him,
Speaker 1: you know, he's not a big Warriors guy, but I'm
Speaker 1: asking him something that's related to his city. My segment
Speaker 1: producers a big New Yorker. He's from Connecticut, but he
Speaker 1: loves the Giants, So I'm going right in to say
Speaker 1: what's going on, you know, and I have fun with
Speaker 1: him talking about, you know, how things have been going
Speaker 1: on with the Giants. So, like you know, you go
Speaker 1: back and forth and and you have access to people
Speaker 1: that have a better viewpoint considering they're heavily involved in
Speaker 1: in the team and the cities that they're from, and
Speaker 1: from my perspective being from Philadelphia. I get texts or
Speaker 1: if I'm in the newsroom, Oh what do you think
Speaker 1: of this? What's your first thought? You know about this move,
Speaker 1: this transaction, this trade. So it's never dull. We have
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. We all respect each other's opinions,
Speaker 1: but we also like to talk trash. It is the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia faction strong in Bristol. It's getting there. There's you know,
Speaker 1: I you know, I wear the flag, gonna carry the
Speaker 1: flag around, the Philadelphia flag, and I'm not shy about it. Um,
Speaker 1: there are there are some people behind the scenes you
Speaker 1: run into. I know, Chris mckendry's a big Philadelphia fan
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, obviously she's not in the newsroom
Speaker 1: now because she's covering tennis on the road. Um. You
Speaker 1: you stubble upon a couple of the people that you know,
Speaker 1: no matter what. A director here, a producer there that
Speaker 1: We've had a lot of production assistants come through in
Speaker 1: the last five years that I love when they come
Speaker 1: in and it's their first time in Bristol and then
Speaker 1: they want to talk you know, Philadelphia sports with it
Speaker 1: me and I'm like, all right, great, great, let's have
Speaker 1: a good perspective here. Let's let's get some fresh juice
Speaker 1: and good conversation. So, uh, we we have a lot
Speaker 1: of different flavors. We can't forget that we're also in
Speaker 1: um in the territory where I'm surrounded by Celtics fans,
Speaker 1: Giants fans. You hear about the Patriots, you hear about
Speaker 1: the Mets, you hear about the Yankees. Not so much
Speaker 1: for the Jets, but every now and then you can.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have a conversation with Levy about the Jets.
Speaker 1: That's great. So where do you think the seventy sixers
Speaker 1: are right now after their flurry of moves, acquisitions and
Speaker 1: transactions compared to where they were when we last saw
Speaker 1: them leaving Toronto. I think you're going to see a
Speaker 1: tremendous difference on defense. Yeah, I mean they were they
Speaker 1: were a decent defense team, but the ability to now
Speaker 1: all five positions, uh cover Listen, We're gonna miss JJ's
Speaker 1: ability to shoot the three and spread the floor, and
Speaker 1: of course that relationship that he had with Joel, but
Speaker 1: he was a liability on the defensive side. And when
Speaker 1: you can get to somebody like Josh Richardson who can
Speaker 1: handle a couple of different things that could handle. Potentially
Speaker 1: if he has to play point guard, m he's going
Speaker 1: to defend. You know. I think that the the Sixers
Speaker 1: when you look at length and you look at their
Speaker 1: ability to shut down teams, and that's things get tighter,
Speaker 1: the court gets smaller in the playoffs, and you have
Speaker 1: an Al Horford there, you know, as the guy that
Speaker 1: just in case if Joel's nicked up or he wants
Speaker 1: to night off. The ability that we have the reinforcements
Speaker 1: there that we did not have this spring makes me
Speaker 1: feel comfortable. Now I'm curious to see, you know, Tobiases development,
Speaker 1: and now let's not forget Judging Tobias last year is
Speaker 1: really hard to do because he was the fourth option
Speaker 1: in this offense. And now there's going to be an
Speaker 1: elevation and there's going to be a demand to see
Speaker 1: can he hit that consistent jumper on the outside. I
Speaker 1: feel like he can do it. I think he's going
Speaker 1: to be more comfortable too, with them running more sets
Speaker 1: for him. I really like where this team is. My
Speaker 1: biggest concern, I think everybody has. The concern is the
Speaker 1: bench and the ability to get somebody off that bench
Speaker 1: that can create instant points and man. That would be
Speaker 1: a huge addition to what we've seen from Elton Brand
Speaker 1: and what he's done this offseason. Let's go back to
Speaker 1: Horford first. I'm really excited about that. He's the type
Speaker 1: of player where, of course, if he's on a rival
Speaker 1: team of the one that you root for, he can
Speaker 1: get to you because he's so good. But to me,
Speaker 1: it's also because he's like so poised and composed out
Speaker 1: there on the court. But I'm so pumped to see
Speaker 1: now what he and Joel can do alongside one another together,
Speaker 1: and him getting the chance to play the fourth spot
Speaker 1: that he really hasn't been much traditionally out of the
Speaker 1: course of his career. Yeah, and the ability that you
Speaker 1: can you're not just relying on Joel as a big
Speaker 1: man down low. Now. Of course we've seen Ben developed
Speaker 1: that on the block as well, and it'll be interesting
Speaker 1: to see all three guys on the court, who's getting
Speaker 1: the shots and where they're getting their shots as they
Speaker 1: try to find a way to spread in space on
Speaker 1: the floor. But having Horford there, when you look at
Speaker 1: the young nucleus and you look at the age of Tobias,
Speaker 1: you look at the age of Ben and Joel well,
Speaker 1: what I mean, what's the average twenty four, twenty five,
Speaker 1: twenty six. Right, Yeah, Al has been there, he's battled.
Speaker 1: He's going to be a calming presence that the team needs. Um.
Speaker 1: He never blinks. And listen, I look at it this
Speaker 1: this way that when Al was playing against Joel, I
Speaker 1: think every Sixers fan knew, oh man, there, this is
Speaker 1: gonna be a dog fight on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: And whether whether Al can slow twell down. We know
Speaker 1: Joel's gonna be exhausted. Right, you have the ability now
Speaker 1: that you take away that factor from your biggest rival,
Speaker 1: the Celtics, and now you can have both those guys there. Um,
Speaker 1: it's fantastic And and and who knows what you know
Speaker 1: Brett's plan is going to be and what Joel's plan
Speaker 1: is going to be when we talk about load management,
Speaker 1: because it's a real thing. But the Raptors did an
Speaker 1: excellent job last year with Kawhi. When you play sixty
Speaker 1: five games in the regular season and when he's not playing,
Speaker 1: you find a way to win games. What they went
Speaker 1: I think seventeen and four when Kawhi wasn't playing, so
Speaker 1: guys had to step up at in those moments. It
Speaker 1: makes a ton of sense. I could be wrong with
Speaker 1: that staff, but I think that some of the numbers
Speaker 1: are similar that when Kawai has the miss games, you've
Speaker 1: got to have other guys step up. And we have
Speaker 1: that ability now that if Joel wants to play sixty
Speaker 1: five games to make sure he's ready to go in April,
Speaker 1: something we have not seen the last two years at
Speaker 1: the start of the playoffs. It's great to have that option.
Speaker 1: Tobias got off to a huge, huge start last year
Speaker 1: with the Clippers. As you alluded to, it was a
Speaker 1: different type of context he was within in terms of
Speaker 1: the team when he got to the seventy sixers. Do
Speaker 1: you think he's ready for what's to come? Yeah, I do.
Speaker 1: Now that you have the full season, now you know
Speaker 1: the personnel, and now you know the commitment that the
Speaker 1: Sixers have made to him, goes a long way mentally,
Speaker 1: and I think that Tobias is going to come in
Speaker 1: and he's going to embrace this role, this idea that
Speaker 1: this is a Sixers big three, you could say big four,
Speaker 1: and they have the ability that you know, they're not
Speaker 1: going to look at Al's Al's gonna spread it if
Speaker 1: he can if he can hit that three from the outside.
Speaker 1: More and more that we've seen him develop that game.
Speaker 1: But Al got his points not because the Celtics are
Speaker 1: trying to run a bunch of plays for him. He
Speaker 1: got his points because he's working hard inside. Right, They
Speaker 1: don't have to create things for Al. When you have
Speaker 1: Joel down on the blocks, you have been on the break.
Speaker 1: You can create some stuff for Tobias. You've got Joel
Speaker 1: Embiid Ben Simmons, two young talents, all stars. Ultimately, so
Speaker 1: much of what the seventy Sixers have hopes for in
Speaker 1: terms of the future will likely come back to them.
Speaker 1: What's untapped for them? What are your hopes your expectations
Speaker 1: for them as they get ready for their third season together. Oh, listen,
Speaker 1: I think when you look at the East and you
Speaker 1: look at the idea of what the Sixers did without Joel,
Speaker 1: and you give the Raptors their toughest run in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Now we're going to say that also with the mindset
Speaker 1: that the Warriors did not have a healthy Kevin Duranton
Speaker 1: and of course they lost Klay Thompson. But in the East,
Speaker 1: the Sixers, I mean they went toe to toe fifteen rounds,
Speaker 1: and I view them losing the way they lost, as
Speaker 1: you know, when Rocky and Apollo or in the ring
Speaker 1: and they're both falling down in the second Rocky and
Speaker 1: it's literally there, who's gonna get up? Who's literally gonna
Speaker 1: hang on the ropes to get up? And that's what
Speaker 1: that final shot was from Kauai for Game seven. So
Speaker 1: I really liked the Sixers chances here to win the East,
Speaker 1: and I like the idea of what Elton's doing. This
Speaker 1: window in this league, as we have seen, is a
Speaker 1: two to three year window, and then you kind of
Speaker 1: readjust retool. There is no doubt they viewed this as
Speaker 1: a two to three year window. And if you can
Speaker 1: make it a four year window under Al's contract, fantastic,
Speaker 1: But a two to three year window right now to
Speaker 1: win it all with this group, I'm all in. And
Speaker 1: Josh Richardson is such a welcome edition because he's a
Speaker 1: young guy on a contract that they could afford. And
Speaker 1: then and then you got this thing here where if
Speaker 1: Al after three years they feel like, all right, we
Speaker 1: got to figure something out. You got one year left
Speaker 1: without you could still have the ability to retool, but
Speaker 1: you still got what two more years with Tobias. You
Speaker 1: still got Joel on the books, and you still got
Speaker 1: three potentially three more years of Ben Simmons. So the
Speaker 1: ability to grow with this team, but also the ability
Speaker 1: to say we are in win now mode. That's critical
Speaker 1: in this league. It is critical as we've seen a
Speaker 1: three year window with Kevin Durant come to an end
Speaker 1: in Golden State, and I'm curious to see what the
Speaker 1: Nets are gonna be like a year from now with
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant trying to come back and now that they
Speaker 1: have a you know, Kyrie a year under his belt,
Speaker 1: I'm curious to see where the will be. I think
Speaker 1: a huge hit to the Bucks and Jannest is going
Speaker 1: to be better, which is kind of scary after winning
Speaker 1: the MVP, but let me losing Malcolm Brogden is a big,
Speaker 1: big deal. And what you're seeing around the league and
Speaker 1: we saw this offseason is we're not seeing a lot
Speaker 1: of super teams. Now there's a little bit more balanced,
Speaker 1: and it's like Kauai decided I wanted to add balance
Speaker 1: to the universe. He decided to do that to the
Speaker 1: association by not joining the Lakers, and I think that's
Speaker 1: the benefit of the Sixers. You know, one last thing
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you about, keV before letting you go.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you have a lot of memories from your
Speaker 1: youth following the Sixers, going to seventy sixers games. Part one,
Speaker 1: do you remember what your first flashbulb seventy sixers moment was?
Speaker 1: And then Part two? I see you at games now
Speaker 1: with your family and your kids. How cool is that
Speaker 1: kind of completion of a part of the circle of
Speaker 1: your life now being able to share in those experiences
Speaker 1: with your family in South Philadelphia. Brian, I really appreciate
Speaker 1: this question because that's I look at some of my
Speaker 1: fondest memories. It surrounds Philadelphia sports, and it surrounds my
Speaker 1: family and experiencing those things with my mom and my
Speaker 1: brother and my dad. You know, my first real memory
Speaker 1: of the Sixers distinct was, you know, my dad taking
Speaker 1: me and my family to a sixer Celtics game in
Speaker 1: the playoffs and I was maybe, I don't know, I
Speaker 1: want to say, five, six, seven years old, and I
Speaker 1: remember it going. You know, we were in the nosebleeds,
Speaker 1: which as a kid you don't care, and we're walking
Speaker 1: up the steps and there was a Celtics fan in
Speaker 1: one of the seats, and I remember how angry I got.
Speaker 1: I was like, how did we let that person into
Speaker 1: this building? Like I was really territorial like and he
Speaker 1: had like a you know, a Celtics penalty was dressed
Speaker 1: in green. And I've never hated a team more than
Speaker 1: those Bird mcale parish teams with Angel And so my
Speaker 1: my passion for the Sixers and the Celtics rivalry was
Speaker 1: born in the early eighties. And my my most distinct
Speaker 1: memory as a kid growing up is my mom taking
Speaker 1: me out of school and taking a friend of mine.
Speaker 1: I'm eight years old and we go to Philly for
Speaker 1: the parade for the Sixers and then taking me to
Speaker 1: the vet and there was a guy who's dressed up
Speaker 1: as Moses saying full, full full, you know, and I
Speaker 1: just remember following the floats and that my mom thought
Speaker 1: it was good enough and that was appropriate to take me,
Speaker 1: my friends, my brother, his friends and leave school to
Speaker 1: go to the parade. And I never forgot that, and
Speaker 1: that stuck with me. You know. I've taken my kids
Speaker 1: to games, whether it's the Eagles, the Sixers, the Phillies.
Speaker 1: One day, we're gonna go to the Flyers, trust me,
Speaker 1: but it just coincides with the bad schedule. We go
Speaker 1: to these games and sometimes driving back, I'm like, ah,
Speaker 1: they can miss school tomorrow, you know, because we're down
Speaker 1: there on a Sunday and you know, we're driving back
Speaker 1: on a Monday, or we're driving back late Sunday night,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I didn't go into school a little
Speaker 1: bit late because to me, it's it's those memories, in
Speaker 1: those moments. I'll share one funny story with your Brian,
Speaker 1: just how passionate crazy we are as a family. My boys,
Speaker 1: they they wake up, their five and seven, they wake
Speaker 1: up in the morning and they're on YouTube and they're
Speaker 1: watching games. They watch old games and they're watching like
Speaker 1: Sixers games from the past season. And one night I
Speaker 1: put them to bed, both of them, and it was
Speaker 1: this week, and I told them both. I said, dad,
Speaker 1: Daddy loves you very much. And my seven year old
Speaker 1: chimes right after I said, he goes, you love us
Speaker 1: more than Joel Eban I was, I said, son, and
Speaker 1: my five year old was listening intently, and I said, son, absolutely, Now,
Speaker 1: Joel's a place in my heart. But I loved you
Speaker 1: guys more than I love anything in the world. And
Speaker 1: my five year old was complete letely son. He had
Speaker 1: no It's like I rocked his world. That they're higher
Speaker 1: up on the list when it comes to love Joel Embid,
Speaker 1: But that just shows you how much we passionately care
Speaker 1: about our Philadelphia sports and our athletes. And Joel is
Speaker 1: my favorite athlete currently right now, and I think I
Speaker 1: think my boys share the same common interests. That is
Speaker 1: tremendous through multiple generations in your family. It sounds like
Speaker 1: parenting done right. Good stuff. Thank you, Thank you, Brian
Speaker 1: all Right, Kevin and Gandhi ESPN tremendous local success story
Speaker 1: the man. Thanks so much, Thank you, Brian. I love
Speaker 1: hearing Kevin's thoughts about the seventy six ers and the
Speaker 1: lay of the land of the NBA. But for someone
Speaker 1: like myself who is still feltically young in the parenting game,
Speaker 1: that's some great insights to pass along. Just good to
Speaker 1: hear stories like that, Hartman. The completion of the full
Speaker 1: circle parent takes you, you take your kids, positive impact,
Speaker 1: It's all around great stuff. Awesome having Kevin on the podcast.
Speaker 1: Appreciate him for carving some time out of his very
Speaker 1: busy schedule. Appreciate you as always for listening and keep
Speaker 1: checking your feeds. We'll have new episodes of the podcast hopefully.
Speaker 1: My goal is weekly as the offseason continues. Right here
Speaker 1: on the broadcast see him