It’s a generous gesture Brett Brown makes each year around this same time - hosting a couple dozen reporters for a mid-day meal at one of Philadelphia’s foodie-approved restaurants.
Tuesday, the gathering was held at Bar Amis, located at the Navy Yard, just an I-95 overpass away from The Center, where the 76ers play their home games.
For about 90 minutes, Brown spoke extensively (and, in some cases, exhaustively) about many of the key storylines surrounding his promising club as it nears the start of training camp - everything from the lessons he learned from last season’s second-round playoff exit, to ways to potentially pair no. 1 picks Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz together.
Over the next few days, we’ll unpack and dive into a few of the bigger picture themes that emerged from Brown’s annual media luncheon. But for now, we’ll leave you with this tweetcap highlighting a handful of the top line items that were on Tuesday’s menu.
Free grub has long been a sure-fire way to draw reporters out to an event. However, had there been a price of admission Tuesday, it would have been well worth it, given the caliber of the spread.
Before Brown sat down to eat, the 76ers’ trusty PR department passed out a list announcing a series of promotions and hires.
Brown knows that people will be paying close attention to Ben Simmons’ and Markelle Fultz’s shots this season. The head coach plans to keep his eyes on other things, too.
Brown said Tuesday that he has specific goals in mind for the upcoming season. For now, he’s keeping them to himself.
The report Brown gave on Joel Embiid sounded, in a word, excellent.
To Brown, the road out of the Eastern Conference still figures to be a challenging one, no matter which players have left or entered the conference.
When it comes to franchise cornerstones Embiid and Simmons, Brown hopes their tenures with the Sixers last a long, long time.