Philadelphia 76ers Notebook: Elton Brand empathizes with Andrew Bynum
Christopher A. Vito
PHILADELPHIA – Whatever’s going through Andrew Bynum’s head these days, Elton Brand said he’s shared those thoughts. Brand battled through a ruptured left Achilles’ tendon to play the final eight games of a contract year. The result – an $80 million contract from the 76ers. So Bynum, who has an expiring contract, can relate. ‘Coming […]
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The Times Herald
PHILADELPHIA – Whatever’s going through Andrew Bynum’s head these days, Elton Brand said he’s shared those thoughts.

Brand battled through a ruptured left Achilles’ tendon to play the final eight games of a contract year. The result – an $80 million contract from the 76ers. So Bynum, who has an expiring contract, can relate.

‘Coming off not being healthy, wanting to be there for your team, doing everything you can, high expectations getting here, same city. I definitely can relate,’ said Brand, whose Dallas Mavericks Tuesday visited the Sixers, for whom he played four seasons. ‘When I was here, I was optimistic. And I’m optimistic it’ll work out for the franchise. Eventually (Bynum) will be healthy. He’ll definitely still be seven feet. He’ll be a load down low. He’ll help this franchise.’

Brand said he wished he could’ve helped the Sixers more than he did. Signed prior to the 2008-09 campaign, he came to Philly with high expectations. He left calling his experience ‘a mixed bag’ and ‘not a total success.’

The power forward, in his 14th season, said he understood the Sixers’ reasons for breaking up a team that came within one victory of reaching the Eastern Conference finals.

‘If we beat the Bulls (in the opening round) with Derrick Rose, maybe. But I’m a realist,’ Brand said. ‘I kind of felt we had reached our ceiling. Maybe we didn’t. They swung for the fences, tried to get Bynum. I like the moves they made.’

Aside from it being a ‘hectic’ summer, he said he held no grudges for the Sixers’ front office deciding to amnesty him in the last season of his five-year contract. The Mavericks are paying $2.1 million of his $18.2 million salary, with the Sixers paying the difference without it counting against their salary cap.

‘Any time you get a demotion or anything like that, I don’t know,’ he said. ‘The word ‘amnestied’ wasn’t ‘cut,’ so it sounded better than that. Any time you get a demotion, you’ve got a chip (on your shoulder).’

Brand, who has started 12 of Dallas’ 15 games, was averaging career-worst per-game totals, with 5.5 points and 5.8 rebounds, coming into Tuesday night.

‘I’m just trying to help my team win ballgames,’ Brand said. ‘I’m not looking at stats. We need to win. Sometimes that takes away from the winning formula.’

The key for the Sixers winning games is rebounding, an area in which Brand could be helping this year’s team. Interestingly, both the Sixers and the Mavericks rank among the NBA’s bottom five in the battle of the backboards.

Regardless of stats, Sixers coach Doug Collins said the Sixers miss Brand’s ‘soul.’

‘I wish I could’ve coached Elton one year in his prime. Just one,’ he said. ‘One year when he’s young and healthy and doing the things he can do. I saw him every day with those hands that are banged up, holding a basketball before games, squeezing the ball to get himself ready, walking around with his leg weights doing his exercises.’

‘That guy is so regimented. We miss him. We miss that soul because EB is all about winning.’

*** Nick Young, better known in the locker room by his moniker Swaggy P, said he doesn’t know its origins. He said he gave himself the nickname, which has caught on. Young said the Sixers run plays for ‘SP,’ rather than ‘NY.’ Former Sixers coach Jim O’Brien is one of Rick Carlisle’s assistants with Dallas. The Sixers are selling blue wristbands for $2 at their fan store and Acme markets, the proceeds of which go to Hurricane Sandy relief.