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UPDATED: May 6, 1:40 p.m.
“I frequently remind myself that this is bigger than basketball,” he said. “It’s bigger than sports.”
Speaking for the first time since the season was suspended, Brand said the league has been looking at all options to get back to basketball. He has a weekly general manager call with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, and he’s also part of a return-to-play committee.
“It’s gonna be based on safety. It’s gonna be based on health,” he said. “To steal a line from Adam directly, he said, ‘It’s going to be based on data, not a date.’”
Asked if he needs a full season, including playoffs, to make major decisions, Brand said again it’s too hard to speculate. They’re preparing as if there will be a season, and he talks to coach Brett Brown every day.
“There’s so many unknowns. He’s prepping, I’m prepping, and I hope we do get a chance to play, in some way, once it’s deemed safe,” he said.
And if games resume at locations other than the Wells Fargo Center — and without fans — Brand’s team may be losing a home court edge. They were 29-2 in South Philly.
“If it is in a neutral site, I don't know how our players are gonna respond and what that means for us, but I know they’ll be prepared.”
Brand spoke about a variety of other matters in his half-hour conversation with the media on Tuesday. He said he is optimistic that Ben Simmons, who has been rehabbing a back injury, will be ready to go when, and if, play resumes. When asked specifically if Simmons would be able to play if playoff games were happening now, Brand was circumspect and declined to say. Simmons is being taken to rehab methodically because they have time while the season is suspended.
It’s difficult to speculate, because Simmons hasn’t played any three-on-three or five-on-five.
“He’s been working hard, and I know he’d be close, or be ready,” Brand said.
Simmons has been one of the Sixers able to access the team's closed practice facility, because he’s receiving treatment.
Brand spoke highly of Joel Embiid’s conditioning, even though Embiid only played one game before the suspension after returning from a shoulder injury he suffered in late February.
“I wouldn’t bet against him,” Braid insisted. “He’s gonna be ready and ramped up.”
The Sixers' GM says he thinks the players will need an appropriate amount of ramp-up time if the season were to resume.
“They truly miss the locker room, they miss each other, they miss the fans. They miss everything that basketball afforded them,” Brand said.
He added that the players have been staying connected, which includes Zoom happy hours — which, nhe joked, he has not been invited to.
For himself, personally, the general manager said he is trying to create positive memories with his family as he waits out the pandemic like the rest of us.