Sixers, Brett Brown Reach Contract Extension

The Sixers and head coach Brett Brown have reached a contract extension that will keep Brown in Philadelphia through the 2018-19 season.

The Sixers and head coach Brett Brown have agreed to a contract extension.

According to a report from Yahoo Sports, the deal is a two-year extension which will keep Brown in Philadelphia through the 2018-19 NBA season.

“Brett has been everything we anticipated – and more – both as a basketball coach and a partner in building this program,” team president and general manager Sam Hinkie said in a press release. “His tireless work ethic, his daily desire to consistently improve, and his resiliency line up with our core values as an organization. It was not difficult to come to the decision to formally say we want to work with Brett Brown even longer.”

Brown originally agreed to a four-year contract back in the summer of 2013. Over the past two-plus seasons Brown has compiled 38-149 record as a head coach, guiding the Sixers through one of the most aggressive — and controversial — rebuilds in recent memory.

“I accepted a 4 year commitment to try to do something extraordinarily difficult,” Brown said, referring to his original contract which runs through the 2016-17 season. “You take hits and we grow our young guys and it’s not always fun, but I feel like when you weigh it up in its totality there are amazing opportunities if we can stay solid and not get distracted.

“I feel personally connected to the city. I love the city of Philadelphia,” Brown went on to say. “It’s real. It’s blue-collar. It wears its heart on its sleeve.

Sixers president and general manager Sam Hinkie, who earlier this week came under scrutiny when the Sixers hired Jerry Colangelo to work with him in the front office, has been linked to Brown from the beginning. Like Brown, Hinkie was also hired during the 2013 offseason, although the Sixers general manager took three months before finishing his exhaustive coaching search.

“He’s had resiliency that I think has impressed most of you, and has impressed me, as we charge down this path to try to really put ourselves in a position to do something,” Hinkie said about Brown. “He’s been unwavering in his commitment, and he’s had an every day positivity that honestly has been been infectious. It’s been infectious in our building at PCOM. It’s been infectious in our locker room at Wells Fargo and all around the country where we’ve played. It’s an exciting day for us to be able to announce [the extension].”

According to Hinkie and Brown, conversations about a contract extension began a few weeks ago, although it was something Hinkie had been considering for a few months.

“For a long period of time the question had been when is the right time? Not if, but when,” Hinkie explained. “This is the kind of thing I’d thought about, honestly, a lot this summer.”

During Brown’s first two seasons in Philadelphia, the focus has primarily been on player development. While that’s still true, Brown does feel confident that will change during his tenure here.

“I do believe that we will. It’s part of my excitement to accept this extension,” Brown said, when asked if he saw himself having a winning team in the next three years. “I see great things that can happen and we have to find ways to get young guys older and young guys better.”

Prior to joining the Sixers, Brown spent his entire NBA career with the San Antonio Spurs. Brown originally joined the Spurs in 1998 as a member of their basketball operations department before leaving to take a head coaching position with the Sydney Kings of the National Basketball League in Australia. Brown rejoined the Spurs in 2002 as the director of player development, eventually being promoted to assistant coach for the 2006-07 season, a position he held until he was hired by the Sixers prior to the 2013 season.

Derek Bodner covers the 76ers for Philadelphia magazine’s new Sixers Post. Follow @DerekBodnerNBA on Twitter.