Sixers’ Brett Brown calls facing Australia’s Melbourne United ‘an unusual circumstance’
Sixers coach Brett Brown and standout Ben Simmons have ties to Australia's National Basketball League, Melbourne United.
Brett Brown is right.
This does indeed appear to be quite an unusual circumstance to have this opportunity.
The 76ers coach spent 17 years in Australia and has two Australians on his team in starting point guard Ben Simmons and reserve power forward Jonah Bolden. Brown and Simmons also have ties to Australia's National Basketball League champion Melbourne United. Simmons' father, David, was standout player for the team, while Brown was former assistant coach with the club. He also coached current United head coach Dean Vickerman and assistant Simon Mitchell as teenagers for the Victoria Metropolitan State team (Under-18).
On Friday, Brown's Sixers will host the United in a preseason opener at Wells Fargo Center.
But on Thursday the coach talked about having Simmons and Bolden on his roster and looking down the sidelines and seeing two of his players from Down Under.
"It's quite an usual circumstance to have this opportunity," Brown said.
Brown and his coaches are scheduled to have dinner with the United coaching at an Italian restaurant Thursday night in the city.
Like his coach, Simmons is excited about the game.
"It's going to be awesome," he said of facing the United. "It feels like home. It's going to be fun to play against guys I'm familiar with, especially against a club that my dad played with."
David Simmons, Ben's father, played for the Australian professional basketball team, formerly known as the Melbourne Tigers, from 1989 to 1996. Melbourne retired his No. 25 jersey. Brown served as the team's assistant coach from 1988 to 1993.
Melbourne led is by former Sixer Casper Ware, a 5-foot-11 point guard.
This game will mark second time Ben Simmons has faced United; he played against the squad in Melbourne in 2015 during his lone season at LSU.
Right now, the 2017-18 NBA rookie of the year is arguably the biggest sports figure in Australia. His 12 triple-doubles in the regular season were the second-highest total for a rookie in NBA history.
The Sixers are coming off their best season since they went to the NBA Finals in 2001. They finished 52-30 in the regular season and fell to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals.