We're talking about being relevant again. I want the Sixers to be on people's tongues again... I want the Sixers to be the basketball team that people want to see.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I'm very happy and excited to be re-joining the Sixers family as a part of their broadcast team. I spent my best and most enthusiastic years of my NBA career with this organization and its fans and I truly feel honored and blessed to have been given this opportunity to return.
I wasn't a fan of the Sixers. My dad was a big Mo Cheeks fan, and he wanted me to be drafted by the Sixers. My thing was, if that could make my dad happy, then that would make me happy, you know what I mean?
The 76ers hold a special place in my heart and I am intrigued by the opportunity to return to Philadelphia, where I was part of a rebuilding program, joining the team the year after it went 9-73 and going to the NBA Finals just four years later.
We've got to get our fans back. We've got to start winning and get our fans excited about the 76ers again... We're selling hope. This is about hope. We have hope that we have a chance to be good.
The NBA has made it clear they want fan bases to be able to keep their teams.
The 76ers currently play very good basketball, and we don't. However, we are still only one win behind them. If we continue to improve, we should be on the top of our division at the end of the regular season.
Philadelphians are intensely loyal. They don't switch teams even when the Sixers lose by 63 points or the Phillies finish last in the NL East.
The NBA has made a real issue about really making these superstars the premium that everybody wants to go to. That's their calling card and their marketing tool. But the coaches at the other end of the sphere are trying to make everybody on the team, even nine, 10, 11, 12, just as important, and have a real role that's meaningful.
I always wanted to be a Sixer... I always wanted to finish my career as a Sixer.
I had been a basketball fan growing up, and I felt that if we brought in the proper coach, and we played basketball the old fashioned way - where defense is paramount and offense involved movement off the ball and movement of the ball - we could build a winning team, and Chicago would respond to that.
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