Do you know what, Because the podcast was on hiatus for a little bit, figured why not do two episodes of the pod to get the feeds fired back up and revive this week, So here we are once again. This is going to kind of be a pote peri edition of the broadcast, mixing mashing together some pieces of audio content that have been hanging in the queue and the hopper for a bit that will bring to you.
We'll hear from Wilson Chandler, one of the newest seventy Sixers acquired via trade with the Denver Nuggets this offseason, and we'll also touch base with the president of business operations for your Philadelphia seventy Sixers, Chris Hacked, to talk about how an NBA team's schedule comes together and the sixers upcoming trip to China along with this weekend's final
short tour events. Before we get into that, of course, we must remind you that to subscribe to the broadcast and our podcast feed if you have not already, you can go to Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, SoundCloud, type in Sixers Podcast Network that will take you to our feeds and you can subscribe right then and there. If you haven't done it. We hope you do. So we're gonna hear from Chris Heck in just a few moments about the logistics required for putting together an NBA schedule.
We'll also talk about a kind of social media wager he made with one of the seventy sixers young stars. That's in just a matter of minutes. But first let's hear from Wilson Chandler, NBA veterans swingman, a guy who the seventy Sixers feel will not only be able to add a solid presence on the offensive end of the court, but to help add depth on the wing defensively as well. He has set for year number eleven in the league. The seventy Sixers acquired Chandler from the Nuggets the summer.
Wilson Chandler was making his first public appearance as a member of the seventy Sixers at the Variety Children's charity camp just outside of Plymouth. Meeting helped First Trust Bank, one of the seventy Sixers partners, present the Variety Children's Camp with a twenty five thousand dollar check for future scholarships.
And it was on that occasion that I had the chance to chat briefly with Wilson about the importance of getting right out into the community right off the bat as a member of a new team, and also some of his thoughts looking ahead to the twenty eighteen nineteen season. Wilson, you're relatively fresh in town. Why was it important for you to come out and be a part of this event? One, I think just showing a community. I'm committed to the team,
you know, and I'm happy to be here. And two, it is always good to come out, you know, and support everyone, you know, no matter race, special needs, or whatever it is. You know, everybody's equal, you know, and just want to come out of the part and so to. There were lots of smiles on the kids faces, smile on your face. Walk us through some of the stuff you did with the kids, the kickball stuff, you know, some basketball stuff, a couple kids showing their drawings, spoke
a little bit, so a little bit of everything. You know. How much of a responsibility do you take in your position as a professional athlete to be a part of something like this, Especially now, it seems like, particularly in the NBA, there's a real ground swelf support for being out, making an impact and making a difference. You know, Um, it's always been a big deal, you know to come out and you know, show support and just be active
in communities. But now I think it's an even bigger deal, you know, with social media and stuff like that, with different platforms and guys like Lebron and you know other guys Katie showing U taking initiative and leading like the group. So you know, it's always good to come out and just continue to do work. To see the way these kids light up, it's gotta be a pretty powerful emotion
that you feel. I think, right, yeah, definitely. You know you when you're a kid, you go through all these emotions, you know, and like I said, with social media and stuff, is at an all time high. So I think, you know, it's always good to see smiles kid spaces. What was the message that you wanted to leave to the group when you spoke with them? Just to know that we all equal, you know, and working together is you know, one of the greatest things we can do to bringing
each other up. Philadelphias, you have to get to know you with a new acquisition that you are. Was there a positive experience that you had when you think back on your youth that you felt put you on course affected you in a good way. Yeah, definitely, you know, going to school and just being around friends and uh playing basketball and being around my teammates all the time. Just put things in perspective, you know, and how a friendships can lead to being family one day and life longer.
A friendships that you are no stranger to living life and professional basketball. But you haven't changed teams a whole lot over the course of your career. How does someone in your position adjust to a new surrounding. How do you get to learn a new situation like the Sixers. Uh, it's tough, but you know one thing I could say about this organization and the team from top to bottom. You know, the day I got traded, everybody reached out, you know, from the owners to the player, as to
the equipment team. Everybody reached out and made me feel at home right away. So they made it easy on you. When you were with Denver, had a chance to face the Sixers during that march Ron and the team was on the winning street or your impressions and the team then, did you have a sense that something was building in terms of a madam for the seventy Sixers. Yeah, definitely. Um. The coach first of all, is doing a great job coaching those guys, playing everybody in the right position to
se see, and the chemistry is amazing. And every guy plays hard, you know, you know, first to the last name of the bench. You know, everybody comes in do the job. Everybody plays hard, and it looks like everybody's committed to one another and there's no selfish and just on the team at all. So you know, look forward to playing with a lot of those guys. Calendars about to flip from July to August at this stage of the offseason. What's on the to do list for you
to get ready for training camp. I just I've been able a couple of weeks now, just you know, talking to a couple of the coaches with the strength team and the physical therapy team. Just getting to know myself and my body and how things work also with the team. So you know, I just being around and just getting used to everything. And I think, on my end, just keep doing what I've been doing, standing shape and I'm working on different things I think on my weaknesses. All right, Wilson,
good to see, Thanks so much. A brief conversation with Wilson Chandler trade pick up this summer for the seventy Sixers at the Variety Children's Camp, a just really phenomenal and important, powerful operation out in the Plymouth Meeting area, where Chandler made an appearance earlier this summer to hang out with the kids, played some kickball, shot some hoops, and presented Variety Camp with a twenty five thousand dollars check on behalf of seventy six Ers partner First Trust Bank,
Chris Heck, the ubiquitous on brand president of the seventy Sixers business Operations. A lot going on for the franchise, so we decided to sit down and talk about it earlier this week. I was talking to a colleague, Chris, a few weeks ago at the beginning of the month, and I remember her saying with her veteran wisdom that she considers August, which many people may view as the real lull in the NBA schedule, to actually be by contrast, arguably one of the busiest months of the year in
NBA circles. Would you agree with that theory, that view that stands. I'm fighting against that theory every year. I think this is going to be an easy month and then we get crushed, all in a good way. It is as the popularity grows, as the attention grows. We have so much to do to prepare for the season,
and the season never ends. This is the one month where coaches and players aren't around as much, but they're even still here and they're still playing at twelve months a year, so it's it's it's the calm before the storm in many sense, but we're also run around crazy trying to get our work done before September and training camp hits. For me personally, the answer to this next question that'll ask you is yes, but did you feel like the bio rhythms of the NBA calendar you're changed
just because the team went for an extra month. You know, we always tease our friends at other teams that have had great success, and I have some good buddies that are at the Golden State Warriors and the Miami Heat, and I always have mentioned to them with complete sarcasm, um, you know, what a shame that you had to work all the way until the summertime. And it is true though, like our our season extended a whole other month and
it was fantastic. It was awesome. It was also exhausting, and that's for the people that don't even play on the court. So the front office and all of the people the staff here um really worked hard during the playoff run and that was it was a real gift, and this team was a gift this past year of winning fifty two games. But it shortens your summer and
it gets all your summer work condensed. And then on top of that, when your team has success, all of a sudden, people want you to play in China and leave the homeland for nine days and in the thick of it. And that's a great thing too. So it's a real treat to work for this team that has having so much success on the court. Definitely want to get to China. Definitely want to talk about the final
Short Tour events this weekend. But because I was on vacation last week, I'm now going to inconvenience you by bringing up something that happened about a week and a half ago, the schedule coming out, and you worked at the league for a long time, you were exposed to different teams and just how this works and really discussing
how a schedule comes together. Because between thirty teams in the league, a building you share with another professional sports franchise and that draws concert after concert and other events you know, Disney and all that stuff. There has to be so much that goes into the making of a schedule. So I kind of wanted to explore that a little bit. You said it. I mean, I think there's a lot of people in Q to m to see where they fall.
The television networks have a heavy influence with the matchups, the travel in the league office does a really good job of trying to avoid back to back games and home and away and home and away, back and forth. So they've done a really good job of of making
this schedule. But you're right, we are We actually are a tenant in a building, um where that is owned by a hockey team, and um it's their building and they have, um their own preferences of when they want to play and uh, and that's part of the game. So we we respect the process and we definitely are pushing for certain games for our fans and times, but a lot of times TV dictates that. So what goes into formulating what you guys think would be ideal times
for fans that sort of thing. What do you pull data from that whole deal? Yeah, yeah, we try to balance it out a little bit. We like seven o'clock games for the most part. National TV all oftentimes drives it to seven thirty or eight o'clock, but so seven o'clock is our standard. We also like weekend games during the day to give kids and families a chance to experience our games, even though we're sold out for every game.
It's such a world now of secondary ticketing market and StubHub, and so StubHub is a great partner of ours, and we like to give people an opportunity to purchase tickets on an individual basis, in addition to our very loyal UH season um ticket members that are backing us once again UH in a robust fashion this year. Now, you were on the best practices marketing business outside when you were at the league office. But when does the planning
um really start for formulating the league wide schedule? And like this is just in the most basic ways, how do they do it? Yeah? Like how much is manual? How much is using Uh, I'm sure plenty of permutations with computer program Yeah, yeah, that you would think that they would just like throw a bunch of numbers in there into a computer and they would spit out a optimal um calendar. But it really it's it's this crazy
algorithm that just is evolving all all the time. And and you have you only have so many arenas, right and you have so many events and concerts and college sports and tournaments in ncuble A, you know, March Madness and Circus that comes in down and Disney on ice like, all these things come into play, and ultimately it is a business, but a teams like ourselves, we are always looking for the interest of our fans and our own interest too of what's going to give us a competitive edge.
So it's really important to us to not have the whole month of April on the road as we're trying to finish up and get ready for the playoffs. You know, there's all these different things that come into play, and we try to avoid those tough swings to be too lengthy or back to back games, and the league is very good with doing everything they can to accommodate us.
The final version of the schedule that is released a fans is not the first version that you guys see, what type of interfacing is there any with basketball operations who from the team side that these different drafts and decides where it might make sense to lobby for some other type of tweak or change the schedule that that
type of thing. Yeah, yeah, And Ned Cohen's very influential on the schedule, as is Laura Price our COO And she's really the one that kind of leads to charge And she said many years of experience of seeing teams that have had great success on the court and teams
not so much. And you know, the good news is we're in the bucket of the ladder and we have when you have two superstar players and you have two players that are which usually is indicated by jersey sales, it's actually the most fascinating thing if you look at the jersey sales and the top ten, I guarantee you those are the teams represented for the most national TV games. So you could almost follow back on jersey sales in popular what the networks are going to choose to be
their marquee matchups. So if you look right now, the teams that have the most national TV game schedule are the Golden State Warriors, them the Lakers with Lebron. Now you got UM Houston and their dynamic team, and the Philadelphia seventy six Ers. So those four teams are probably at the very top of the pecking order, and then you got the next year, which is probably like a Boston and Oklahoma City, really interesting and good teams. So but we're right now in the top echelon. And you
get that also Jersey sales indication. When you hit the Christmas Day game, it's almost like you've arrived, right unless you're in New York and you just get it all here anyway, so when one day it'll all work out for them. The Sixers are kicking off the entire I should probably say tip and the entire NBA regular season with that opening night game against the Boston Celtics, which is pretty telling of where the league views this franchise being at right now. Oh it's nuts. I mean, we're
on national TV every week of the season. It's it's unparalleled actually from from our history of how many times and how often we're on throughout the country, but also globally and the pickup that we're going to get from everywhere from Europe to China to everywhere in between. It is really really a fun time to be a part of the organization and be a fan of the seventy Sixers.
With this popularity and this growth, use the word interesting describe some of these teams, and yeah, you can look at a lot of good, successful teams and say they're interesting. But for the seventy Sixers, like some of those other you know, you look at the Warriors and the Rockets,
it seems like they're relevant too. It's not just interesting, the relevant, they're like compelling people and figures that are part of what the Sixers have building here, which I think from your standpoint, it's just got to make it that much more fun and fascinating for how you try and put everything together and bring the franchise out in
the public. Yeah, it is. You know, you always want to balance, but you also want to win early, you know, sometimes like our schedule this year is heavy front, heavy on the less competitive teams unlike the previous season. Unlike the previous season, and I think that's where we caught everyone by surprise, particularly at the end with the winning streak to finish off the season and so and that
was like that extra gift at the end. But we're always tracking where we think our record will be on a particular time wins and losses and so forth, and basketball ops. Alex Rucker, I go visit him all the time of like where do you think will be when we're doing the scheduling, as well as even on where we value certain games. So it's really it's fun. It's fun.
It's we're fans too. We're following everybody else, and we're super proud of what the team that Brett Brown and his staff have created on the court, and we think that Philadelphia is responding exactly how we expected, which is in a epic fashion of support. In a perfect world, I'm sure we'd love to have eighty two regular season games played in South Philadelphia. But if you had to go on the road, what is the Chris Heck ideal
NBA road trip? If you had to put together a you know, from a personal interest point, like a four or five gamer. Okay, So so you have to take a couple of things in consideration time of year, Tommy woodmonth it is, and let's go like the standard and in December at some point maybe either in a December middle of March when some of the longer trips usually happen. All right, Okay, it's the holiday trip, because that's like
the bankable long road trip, right right, right? What? Um I think that the flight time is uh is important, so um I don't. I would not go West Coast. I think Miami is always a win, right Yes, maybe not on the court, but hopefully on the court holistic entire experience, Miami's fantastic. In the wintertime, it's it's perfect every day. Um So I do enjoy the weather um on on some of the travel. Um But I also
I love going to Boston when we win. When we lose in Boston, it is the most miserable place on the planet. But when we win, it's pretty awesome. It's a good town. And when we win, I think the city that took me by the biggest surprise. It's maybe a reflection of how uncultured I was before I came to work here. But Toronto to me is like, at worst the top three city, and it's a great It is h outstand But don't go in January or February.
I mean it's too cold. It's a when it seems like at least one of the games are yeah sixers up there in the dead winner. It's a quick trip though it's an easy flight. It's a quick trip. That's kind of why I like Boston as well. Chicago is another town. Like if you get Chicago on a mild day, Um, it's an awesome town, but it gets really gold there too. Uh Milwaukee Pass, Detroit pass, Cleveland pass, Uh DC, I take the train down easy. I love it. Yeah. DC
is a good town. And uh Charlotte maybe the nicest, uh nicest people that you'll ever find working out an arena. Friendly, They're great, they're the best. Um and uh you know, so there's um Atlanta doesn't do much for me and the nice people down there, but uh, Orlando whatever, you know. Yeah, yeah, that's kind of mine. I like to stay on there a good idea. Yeah, Indiana pass that way. Yeah, were you guys expecting thirty nine nationally televise games because right
now we're in the phase of the summer. I feel like we're seeing a lot of power rankings and looking ahead and forecasting into me, Like thirty nine national TV games total between ABC, ESPN, t N t NBA TV, like that is as big of a power rating indicator as anything of what people might perceive a team to be. Yeah. No, I'm super excited about that. And I think it's really really fun to show the rest of the country and the world of what a special thing we have in Philadelphia.
And I also think it's our obligation to show Philadelphia in the best light, because I do think this town gets an unfair rap of maybe how things were in the decades ago. So this is a great town, this is a great sports city. It's the best sports city, and it's really fun that we get to show it off. A couple other miscellaneous items before we wrap this up short tour culminating this weekend. You guys really turn this into a tour, which I think is so cool because
there's so there are many great four points. Some may say that they have their own preference in favorites, but you're like hitting it all pretty much. Five stops, five stops, and uh, you know it is um it's really fun to to go to the shore, no matter what beach you go to, and see all the Sixers gear, you know, kids wearing the jerseys and the T shirts out there and the adults wearing It's awesome like that. It really
gets me going. It's really exciting time for us, and and and people are living it down in the Shore and we're giving them a little bit of taste of the team UM from our legends to some of our rookies and and all the games and interactive UM functions that we have. It's really fun for us to share it with the Jersey Shore UM and Duncan Don. It's does an awesome job of making their product a part of our business and UH and our fans, so it's fun.
I'll be down there Saturday. My boss won't let me off during the week, but I will be down there on Saturday and UH and I'm excited to see all the fans in full force. Doctor j Landry Shammitt, Jonah Bolden expected be down there. Mark Jackson World be free. It's a good run, it is, and Chris Heck yeah, yeah, I'll be in the back of the room, but but it will be enjoyable. You know. It's amazing. Nineteen years ago, Brian they started the six Ers started UH the Beach
Bash and UM. I think there was about one hundred people in an empty, empty parking lot UM in Avalon and UH and now we're really looking at somewhere between two to four thousand people per stop. Um On on the short end and um and that five stops in one week. So what a time it is to be a Sixers fan. It's a terrific segue to really start
looking forward to the season. That's ahead. Trip to China in the preseason, as you mentioned earlier, nine day trip specifically looking at China almost one point four billion people. That seems like certainly reason enough to want to invest some energy into trying to expose what the seventy sixers are to that part of the world. Yeah, yeah, no,
we um. You know, I mentioned before that I worked at the league office and you know when when David Stern and this was now I'm dating myself, but we're going back around fifteen years and and David Stern saw China is, you know, the next frontier and and what he started. What Adam Silver has taken over as the commissioner and what they're doing with NBA China is remarkable.
They have several offices throughout the country. There are over three hundred million people in China that play basketball, so they're in leagues, they're playing basketball. Three hundred million, that's how many people there are in the United States. It's it's insane. So it is a basketball crazed market. They love Joel, they love Marquel, they love Ben. It's like this is gonna be soon. Has a huge following. Ai
has got a gigantic following, and he is uh. I mean it's a bit of what you see when he comes visit to visit us at the Center, but it's everywhere in China for Ai. So, um, it's a cool time to be visiting. And uh, and we expect to be um tied into some new partners and getting an opportunity to really make our brand global and um, no better launching pad outside of the US than in China, seventy six ers Field have. Will this effect and change
things for the Sixers organization? Yes, uh, it's it's it's only a short little drive about twenty six miles from here in Camden, and I'd say that's a short twenty five minutes. It's a pleasant swift twenty five minutes Dan to Wilmington. Yeah, yeah, if you drive fast, if you drive fast or odd hours, I make a community every day. So uh, it's it's really exciting. Um, the our friends
in Wilmington, Delaware. Um, they're building this with you know, we're building it together, this fieldhouse, and it's more than an arena. It's a really cool, intimate sized arena for the Bluecoats, our G League affiliate. UM, and it is super nice that it's it's really convenient for our coaching staff and our players to go back and forth. UM. Not to mention our front office staff and UM. This this arena that's being built is really inside a mega
complex that's built for youth. It's an elite youth training complex and it's going to be you know, indoor fields, indoor courts, several basketball courts, I think, uh, three NBA sized courts, two indoor soccer fields, about one hundred and fifty thousand square feet. They'll also have different retail components in it that cater to the youth athlete. And uh, what a need place to to start a refresh with our team or a new rebranded G League team with
the Bluecoats in Delaware. Renderings are beautiful. Last thing, give an update on the social media arrangement or offer you extended to the now reigning Rookie of the Year about ten months ago. You know, it's funny, we have some private meetings in the works as a matter of fact, I just came from one okay, and I'm not going to give you any more information. We're gonna have a nice, uh nice dialogue that'll be public when we get closer
to the season. But uh yeah, we had a little fun with that with with our friend Ben Simmons um and his uh unique flare and style. So um, we'll see where it goes. Can't wait. I don't you know if your listeners know what we're talking about. I was gonna we have to give a little context that. Back in November, Bend made a remark about the Iverson era black silver gold ish, I don't never know what the color splattering at yesh Iverson era seventy six ers jerseys,
and you responded by making an offer. Yeah, yeah, we uh deal, We said that, yes, so the the the response to him was, well, I'm not gonna say that's gonna be a green light for the throwbacks. However, if Ben Simmons wants to influence one of our next uniforms and he wins Ricky of the Year, then we have a deal. And he knows some people in high places at the company that manufactures the threads, you know, Yeah, yeah, we have an intimate relationship on many levels. So it's
all good. It's all good. We think that will make our fans happy down the road, something that Chris Hack in the seventy six ers strive and succeeded doing on a regular basis. Thanks so much, man, You're the best, Brian, thank you. You know. For me, at least, it's probably because I'm lucky enough to be employed by an NBA team.
I always find it interesting to learn more about the ins and outs of what goes into the functioning of a company and an organization of this scope and scale in professional sports, whether it's all the different things that have to be considered for the making of any two games schedule, to everything that has to be planned for a trip halfway around the world to China, where the Sixers are going in October. To me, it's just, I don't know, very insightful to find out more about how
all this comes together. And as we were talking about with Chris, Sixers summer short Tour presented by Duncan Donuts, culminating this weekend with stops on the Old Seven Mile Island this weekend Friday, it's going to be at the White Briar from six to eight pm appearances by former
Sixers World Be Free and Mark Jackson. And then on Saturday afternoon from three to six at the eighty second Street Rec Center in Stone Harbor, World B Mark Jackson going to be there again along with doctor j Julius, Serving, Jonah Bolden, and a Landry Shammis at Short Tour. More information at sixers dot com backslash short Tour. All right, keep your feeds active and open. We're gonna keep rolling out new episodes of the podcast as we work our
way towards training camp. Um see if you gonna look out next week for a new episode Out of the Pot see