Black History Month Inspirations | Serving With Selflessness

guarding Elton Brand, there's no relaxation. Brand broke into the NBA in nineteen ninety nine as the top selection in that year's draft and went on to win CO Rookie of the Year honors. With the first pick in the nineteen ninety nine NBA draft, the Chicago Bulls select Elton Brand from He posted four twenty ten seasons in his first seven years in the league and was twice named an All Star. Brand played for five different teams before calling it a career following his second and final stint

with the seventy six Ers and twenty sixteen. Well after seventeen years of playing the game that I love and it's been great to me, you know, officially retiring this time. It's for real this time. Take some time away from the game, for sure. I'll spend time with my family, go back to picking up the kids, dropping him off his school. You know, we'll see this out there. I see if there's anything around here I could do. Eventually,

eventually ended up lasting only a few months. Later that year, Brand took a front office job with the Sixers, then was fast tracked to general manager for the Delaware Bluecoats. He was promoted to the same position with the Sixers in September of twenty eighteen. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Good morning means a lot to see so many players and staff up here. I wish it would count towards contract negotiations, but it won't. But thanks for

coming up. I'd like to thank Josh Harris, David Blitzer, an attire seventy six Ers organization, for this great opportunity to serve as general manager. I believe this team has an incredibly bright future. And for a guy who never dreamed of hitting it big in sports when he was young, it's pretty ironic that the soon to be forty two year old Brand has now spent more than half of

his entire life in the NBA. It wasn't you know in our minds that we'd be able to make a profession or living out of basketball or football or any type of sports. It was just sports was an avenue for teamwork, camaraderie, pushing yourself, testing your limits, and just growing as an individual. Brand was raised in Peak Skill, New York, a town of about twenty five thousand in the southern region of the Hudson River Valley. Hard working, blue collar, you know where everyone you know got along,

a lot of races, a lot of different people. Forty five minutes outside of New York City on the Hudson River. You get the New York City vibe, you get the New York City energy. Then you can go back to Peaks Scale and you can play ball. And got a great great friends, blue collar, hard work in town on the Hudson. Growing up, it was just Brand, his brother Arthur, and their mom Daisy, being around. My mom. She was great, She had a great workout that she never made excuses,

would never allow me to make excuses. You know, always pushed me, always pushed education, always pushed trying to make yourself better, and also help others around you. That was what she preached a lot to me, So very thankful to have her in my life. And you know, as an inspiration. Brand's humble, hungry, helpful foundation can be traced to a specific place and period in time. His mother was one of several people who made his upbringing and

peak skill impactful. One of the most influential black figures in my life, I'd say, was the mayor of Peakskille, Mayor Jackson, like Brand, Richard E. Jackson was born in the Hudson Valley and went to Peakskill High School. He served as mayor from nineteen eighty four through nineteen ninety one. You know, politics isn't about power, It's not about position. It's not about what can I get coming. That's what fringis. Won't relationship. I'll tell you the human condition is not

I'm better than you. I'm will power than Gill and I connected you so how. And I had to say that. Brand was five when Jackson started his first term. While the two never met, Jackson's trailblazing left a lasting impression. He was the first black mayor in any city in New York State, but growing up I saw him I saw that a person of color could be the mayor

and it wasn't a big deal. You know. The way he carried himself and the way he ran the city, the way he supported the community, it was just commonplace and it was it was great to see. As Brand got older and more involved in playing sports, another important person emerged, a JV basketball coach by the name of Walter Corney. He really instilled in me, you want to conduct the way you conduct yourself as as a professional.

You know, you don't want to be a professional basketball player, you just want to be a professional person overall from you, your habits, your work ethic. And he did that for the entire community. Is what he instilled in us about just being your best self that you can be. At first, Brand might not have believed he was NBA material, but over time, as he evolved into a dominant two way powerhouse that propelled peak Skill to two state titles, his

talents became too obvious to overlooks around. Fiser got part in the brand is coming into high school, I wasn't highly talented or highly recruited or projected to be a McDonald's All American or anything like that. So you know, my mind and my focus was an education. If I can get a scholarship, I could still get a great degree and it still afford to get my mom, my single mom at home one day, like that was my goal. After he turned bro Elton Brand didn't waste any time

getting his mom that house. She always spoke to me about you know, renting versus owning and generational wealth and things like that. So for me to be able to buy her a new home a rookie year contract signed it just you know, it made my day and made made all the work that I put in to get drafted in to be able to do that for her was a special term as in the peakscale area. She always wanted to be close to family, you know, that

was her things. She wanted to be close to the family that I was all the way in you know, Chicago, then La then back to Philly. So she always wanted to be somewhere that she can be close to, you know, her sisters and grandkids and nieces and just all of her family. That's what she was about. She was about the community. Like she didn't to go far from the community. It was up to her and she might of state in public Housen where we grew up. So she didn't

want much at all. You know, she wasn't into a lot of materialistic things, but you know I wanted to do that for her and she ended up happy though. On July first, twenty fourteen, Daisy Brand passed away from cancer. She had been diagnosed just six weeks earlier. If my mom was here today, I think she'd say, uh, you know, honey, you gotta win a championship. Let's get it going. Avid basketball fan. When I was a player, she rarely missed a game home, man away. She flied commercial and make

it to games on the road. Love basketball, so you know she's written for the Sixers and first to get a championship. More of Black History Month inspirations coming up. Hey, it's Brian Seltzer and here at the seventy six Ers podcast Network. We strive to bring you sound content as much as we possibly can. Mondays Leave a voicemail and listen to your calls two on five zero three seven six three seven On mail Bag Mondays with myself and

Lauren Rosen. Every other Tuesday, it's co Check focusing on the Delaware Bluecoats, and every other Thursday, listen to Tom's Talks with Tom McGinnis on Fridays. It's the weekly Deep Dive with Divine Givens. And we're also really excited to be rolling out a brand new feed, The Scoop, a five minute update just about every day. All you gotta do is search seventy six or Scoop wherever you get your pods to subscribe or follow. Thanks for listening and

we'll talk to you soon. Now back to Black History Month inspirations. If anything, the story of Elton Brand buying his mama house is a helpful anecdote that provides a glimpse into Brand's DNA. If he says he's going to do something, he's probably going to do it. The same thing could be said this past summer, albeit under far more public tens and somewhat dramatic circumstances. We'll begin to

search for a new head coach immediately. I'll also be conducting an evaluation of the front office and that infrastructure and ways to strength, and that I'll do the same thing with the roster. Just because Brand knew what needed to be done didn't make it easy change ken and will be uncomfortable, but it's necessary. We owe it. I owe it to these fans. I went to this city to deliver on our goals. If there were any doubts about Brand's sincerity about his commitment to keeping his word,

they should have been put to rest. By the end of the seventy six ers off season. Not only did he landdock Rivers, the biggest name available on the head coach market, he advocated for and helped usher in the hiring of Darryl Morey, who Brand would subsequently start reporting to How rare is that you know he's told you he only cares about winning a title. This proves it right, because you know, he's just like, we're gonna do whatever it takes. And I just I love that about him.

And he has such a great feel that you don't really get as quickly in the job as he already has. Honestly, but in my third year or whatever he's in and the job, I was sort of stumbling around like an idiot. So so I'm so impressed by him, and the fact that he has wanted me here and welcome me has been mean so much. Elton's what you hope every player is like. Really, you know, we always talk about it on the player side. We want players to accept their role to make room for the star player to move

over for winning. But usually in the front office, nobody wants to do that. Everyone talks about that, well that's what they should do. And you know I've always yeah, well you go first, and Elton win first. Elton said, you know what, to make us better, I have to let Darrol come in here and be the president. Eldon is what you would want every player to be a team player. And it's been a world win. You know, talented, you know, exacts and leaders and coaches don't come around

that often. So you know, and you get an opportunity to speak to a doc Rivers and you know, sell him on the roster, sell him on the city of Philadelphia. When you get a chance to speak to Darl Murray, you know, when the top executives over the last fourteen fifteen years, to tell them about our city, to sell them on our roster and what can happen, and then talk about you know, ownership and the focus is on championships.

So it meant a lot to have the opportunity to speak with them and then for them to come it means the world. You know, it's it's about winning here, and I think the organization is showing that. On the surface, the notion of yielding power might seem counterintuitive to personal game or advancement Brands. Fabric is cut from the support system that surrounded him in his youth. Brand is keenly

aware that learning is a part of his journey. He's always embraced mentorship, regardless of whether he's on the giving or receiving end. During his playing career, he established a training center back in peak skill that prepared kids for adulthood. I still get back, you know, at least every summer or every time I get time off and just spend time with the youth in the community and try to

pay it for it and give back. Brand has continued to give back since making the leap to the front office world by advising local youth throughout the Delaware Valley. I think, as you know, an exact, mentoring is very important. It's helping to connect the dots, you know, whether it's your staff or people in college that want an opportunity. They just don't know where to look. So you've been through it. You have the relationships, and that's all someone needs.

Sometime it's just a nudge in the right direction or a few words of advice to help them in their career, in their life. Some mentoring is very important, you know, to me and the Sixers as an organization. Take for instance, this gesture brand made to Matisse Thible last January. Thible was a rookie at the time. When I got hurt last year and I was out for two weeks. We went to I want to say, Houston. Elton was on the trip with us, and he hit me up and he's like, hey, do you want to do you want

to get together? And one of these days in the trip, I was like, yeah, of course it'd be great. So we go and he's takes me to art museum in Houston because he knows that, like I'm interested in photography, I'm named after a painter. We went to a museum, we looked at a lot of artists, and of course we looked at some paintings by Matisse. We spent like a couple hours just talking hoops, talking art. We talked everywhere from Malcolm Gladwell to m Knights Shamalan to his

time at Wharton. You know, a lot of players have different inches. Matis, he's a very bright, you know, young man, and he likes art, and I just said, hey, let's go to the museum. Let's chef. You know. We walked in musem, caught up, talked about his family, looked at some art, you know, And ever since we drafted him, he's going to enjoy to watch play and enjoy off

the court. It's a really cool experience just to have, I mean, as a rookie, to have the DM kind of pouring to me like that, and then also just being hurt and the things that come with that mentally, and just feel like I'm still a part of everything. So just to give him that little boost, you know, I know what it was to be a rookie and not play or you know, not have things going your way. Any effort that I can give, I wanted to do it so and I really enjoyed myself. It's pretty cool, special,

there's a special moment for me. For some parts, better, other parts worse. Brand belongs to a small fraternity. He's one of six black general managers in the NBA. There are five general managers of color in the NFL and none in Major League Baseball or the NHL. Brand remembers how empowering it was to see a black mayor in his hometown. He realizes that in his leadership role in basketball,

he too could help someone believe. I think when you see a black person or you know someone that a person of color, someone that looks like you or can represent, when you represent in all walks of life, it just shows you that you can break barriers that can be you too. There's been a lot of research on that, from education to medical to whatever field. When you see someone that's doing something that you aspire to be or aspired to do, that looks like you, you feel you

can do it too. With the first half of the NBA season drawing to a close, the seventy six ers are in a promising place. They hold the top spot in the Eastern Conference and their stars are thriving. For brand, the focus remains singular, just like it was over the off season when he did his part to usher in significant change that has catalyzed the six or strong start.

It's amazing start. It's been going well, you know, learning a lot, pushing a lot, you know, even through through the pandemic and you know a lot of things that we're facing. You know, very happy where we are. I think my selflessness comes from this experience. You know there's times where I was young and I wasn't you know, was it more about me? Or where can I get out of this situation? So we're learning and being able to be with the sixers in this organization. It's the

mission first, and we want to win championships. You want to be a great organization. And then it's the team, it's each other, and then it's yourself. So when you kind of order it like that, you know, you see a lot of success for a lot of different teams, a lot of companies. That's the way they win, and I want to be a part of that. I just want to do give every effort that we can have the best organization possible. Black History Month. Inspirations is a

production of the seventy Sixers podcast Network. Our voiceover artist is Nick McCain. Production support from the La Clippers. Music courtesy of APM Music. Select information for this story was sourced from Sports Illustrated and Peak Skills, African American History,

Hudson Valley Community's Untold Story. Be sure to go back and listen to previous installments in this mini series profiling doc Rivers and Danny Green, and be on the lookout for our final installment in the Day's Ahead on Mike Scott