Philadelphia 76ers coach Brett Brown on the ties that will forever bond him with Aussie basketball

BRETT Brown had quit his job as a salesman in the United States and set off to backpack around the world. Three decades later, he owes much of his stunning coaching career to landing in Australia.

• ‘He belongs’: Simmons heaps praise on Aussie NBA prospect
• Boomer set to end year from hell with Simmons clash

FOR Philadelphia 76ers coach Brett Brown, Saturday’s pre-season match against Melbourne United is more than a basketball game.

The clash will carry extra emotion given Brown started his now highly successful coaching career in Australia in 1987 when he contacted former Melbourne Tigers coach Lindsay Gaze.

The now Sixers mentor went out of his way to call Gaze as he searched for a new opportunity after quitting his sales job in the States with AT&T to go on a backpacking trip around the Oceania region.

A younger Brett Brown (L), then assistant coach at the Boomers, talks to injured captain Andrew Gaze in 1996.

MORE NEWS

LIVE BLOG: Can Melbourne United upset Simmons’ 76ers?

CRUCIAL: Opals to play China in World Cup quarter-finals

Over two decades later, Brown has used his coaching tenure in Australia to become one of the NBA’s most respected mentors.

On Saturday morning, his journey will come full circle when he coaches against a Melbourne side featuring two of his former Victorian Under 20s players from the Australian Titles in 1990.

United coach Dean Vickerman was his starting point guard while assistant Simon Mitchell was his starting shooting guard.

Brett Brown (top left) with the Victorian Under 20s side he coached at the Australian Titles in 1990.

Brown rarely catches up with Vickerman and Mitchell, so he took them out for an Italian meal on game eve.

“What I take satisfaction from is that in the early days I was a part of many tremendous coaches, administrators and players and the league started to take of,” Brown said.

“My championship games were national TV, 7pm live and Melbourne was a hot-bed for basketball and to see the sport grow interests me.

Jonah Bolden is one of many of the 76ers links to Australia. Picture: Getty

“Now to play this game here in Philadelphia with Ben Simmons as my starting point guard, with Jonah (Bolden) in the side and to look down the sidelines and see two of my former players then to have the history that I personally have had with the Australian culture and 17 years of my life.

“It’s quite an unusual circumstance to have this sort of opportunity to play against Melbourne in a pre-season game.”

Brown lives in Philadelphia these days and only travels to Australia once a year but he says he’ll never forget his Aussie grounding.

Brett Brown credits his time working in Australia, pictured here during his time with the Sydney Kings, as helping his development as a coach.

He credited a lot of his coaching and life philosophies to his time Down Under with the Melbourne Tigers, North Melbourne Giants and the Sydney Kings.

“Australia is very much a second home for me,” he said.

“My wife is Australian and two of my three children were born there.

“I go back there almost every year that we have lived in the United States, we had a great few weeks in Australia this year.

“It’s a country of tremendous people, a culture I’ve fallen in love with and it’s beautiful. So it’s a huge part of my life for a very long time.

“It’s where I started my coaching journey and I had the chance to coach in three Olympic Games and three World Championships and lived a large portion of my life there.

Pictured here coaching the North Melbourne Giants, Brown also worked for the Melbourne Tigers and Sydney Kings. Picture: Andrew Tauber

“I ended up meeting my wife at the Great Barrier Reef and meeting basketball people. I was 25 years old and had made money but I realised I didn’t want to keep doing what I was doing at AT&T.

“Next thing you blink and you have lived 17 years there. It went by quick and I say that as a compliment.”

Brown’s extensive knowledge of Australian basketball is why he is expecting Melbourne United to test the Sixers in Saturday morning’s match.

“This team we are playing lost to OKC in Oklahoma City last year so that should give you a balance of how good they can be,” he said.

“It is a statement that they came over and they were competitive.”

Originally published as Philadelphia 76ers coach Brett Brown on the ties that will forever bond him with Aussie basketball