Kelly Oubre, once a ‘crazy, wild-haired kid,’ has undergone a career renaissance as a dependable, do-everything Sixer

Kelly Oubre Jr. knows exactly what it’s like to be on the receiving end of obscenities hurled by the crowd inside Boston’s TD Garden.

He was once the “crazy, wild-haired kid” who got ejected for forcibly shoving then-Celtic Kelly Olynyk to the ground during the 2017 playoffs. And, in some ways, Oubre still is.

Yet in the nine years since, Oubre’s basketball approach has noticeably matured.

The 30-year-old 76ers wing is having the most efficient season of his 11-year NBA career, setting personal highs in effective field-goal percentage (54.6%) and three-point percentage (36% on 4.8 attempts per game) while averaging 14.1 points, five rebounds, and 1.. In Wednesday’s Play-In Tournament victory over Orlando, he scored 19 points on 5-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc and provided important perimeter defense against the Magic’s big scoring wings.

Oubre’s impact on both ends of the floor will be needed as the shorthanded Sixers enter their first-round playoff series against the Celtics as significant underdogs. They are in search of more scoring punch and floor spacing with former NBA Most Valuable Player Joel Embiid still recovering from last week’s appendectomy. Oubre also likely will be tasked with helping guard the excellent wing tandem of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. And his energy as a rebounder and attacker with the ball are valuable.

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It’s a “do-a-little-bit-of-everything” role that coach Nick Nurse calls “very critical.” It also is the latest step in Oubre’s career renaissance — and, in his mind, progression toward his full potential — in his three seasons since joining the Sixers.

“It’s all kind of based off of what else is happening on the floor,” Nurse said of Oubre. “So being able to continue to play that role consistently — and even at a higher level — I think is important for him.”

A jack of all trades, Oubre remains one of the NBA’s unique characters.

He blows kisses after making three-pointers and announces his entrance into the locker room with a scream during the pregame period open to the media. He plays Pokemon, wears flashy outfits, and lives by Bruce Lee’s “be water, my friend” mantra. A recent creative endeavor: releasing rap songs under the stage name t$unami on top of beats he produced, including one with a peculiar “Rest in peace Paul Walker, I think you are my dad” line that he says is an homage to his beloved Fast & Furious movie franchise.

Yet for Sixers youngsters Justin Edwards and VJ Edgecombe, Oubre has become a mentor.

“I mean, he’s cool,” a smiling Edgecombe said of Oubre. “He’s chill, man. Just someone down to earth. Someone I can just have normal conversations with. It doesn’t have to be about basketball or anything like that.”

The supreme athleticism — and fiery demeanor — that made Oubre a 2015 lottery draft pick were a strength and detriment throughout much of his career. Though he could relentlessly explode into the paint, he was too often reckless with the ball once he got there. He averaged 20.3 points with the Charlotte Hornets in 2022-23, but he drew little interest in free agency before signing a veteran minimum contact with the Sixers late in the offseason.

Once Oubre arrived in Philly, Nurse emphasized him “playing off two feet” when he reached the lane, encouraging more deliberate decisions to either elevate for a shot or distribute to a teammate. Oubre, a player rarely known for passing, bumped his assist numbers to a career-best 1.8 per game in 2024-25 and has averaged 1.6 this season.

Last summer, personal trainer Drew Hanlen took things a step further. He compiled a series of film “lowlights” for Oubre to review.

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“It was all me just going 100 miles an hour, kind of brainless,” Oubre recalled at the Sixers’ media day before training camp.

Hanlen now sends the same text to Oubre before every game. And, sometimes, at halftime.

No dumb shots.

“If I feel I need to force or rush, probably don’t do it,” Oubre said, “and just make the right play.”

Oubre also worked with a California-based physical therapist to increase the range of motion in his shooting wrist, hand, and fingers after multiple surgeries that resulted in built-up scar tissue. He now can bend his wrist back much further before launching a shot, helping catapult his three-point percentage from 29.3% on an average of four attempts last season to his current clip. Nurse recently called that “one of our biggest pluses of the year.”

“It looks great coming off his hands,” the coach said of Oubre’s shooting form. “It looks like it’s going in every time he takes it. It just feels like he’s improved that in technique, in work, in confidence.”

Oubre also aimed to apply that more disciplined approach to the defensive end — often while drawing the most challenging perimeter assignment during Paul George’s 25-game suspension.

He got a harsh lesson on the importance of that end of the floor when Kansas coach Bill Self benched him early in his college career, and he vowed he was “never going to have my energy and effort be a question” again. He acknowledges he got away from his defensive commitment while playing for a fast-paced (and losing) Hornets team from 2021-23. Now, he has refocused on the nuances, such as when to help teammates and not fouling, while also remaining tenacious while guarding the ball.

“I’m working on slowing down the skill in that as well,” Oubre said.

When Oubre reviews clips from this season, he notices a more “digestible” personal brand of basketball. That success, however, still came with hiccups.

When he felt some online fan pages had eliminated him from the preseason roster “equation,” he posted on Instagram: “I love Philly, but the love doesn’t seem to be reciprocated. What happened to this place?” He missed about seven weeks with a mid-November knee sprain, interrupting his terrific start.

And he was in trade rumors before the season and at the deadline, because his expiring $8.4 million contract was viewed by outsiders as perhaps the most movable if the Sixers wanted to get under the luxury tax. Instead, the Sixers dealt Jared McCain and Eric Gordon, and received no players in return.

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When George was suspended on Jan. 31 for violating the league’s anti-drug policy, Oubre said his “antennae” went up that the Sixers would “need more consistent production, instead of wavering” from him. That appeared even more evident when Embiid and leading scorer Tyrese Maxey also suffered weekslong injuries. Nurse added that, when Oubre hovers around 20 points, the Sixers are poised to “have a pretty good offensive night.”

But less than 24 hours after Oubre unleashed a season-high 30 points and 12 rebounds — his first 30/10 statistical output of his career — in a home win over the Memphis Grizzlies on March 10, Oubre was diagnosed with an elbow sprain that kept him sidelined for about two weeks.

Oubre’s first game back was coincidentally in Charlotte, where he still has a home and took time to “smell the drawers” during a visit at a nearby lake. That city also is where Oubre first picked up one of his favorite books, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, when he became a first-time dad about four years ago. Oubre said he also applies those Buddhist teachings to basketball, to keep “that hunger and that edge” as if he were a rookie experiencing NBA life for the first time.

“I need that same feeling in my gut,” Oubre said.

There is no better time for that than the postseason.

Against the Magic, the Sixers believed they could generate open three-point looks for Oubre, who sank three in the first quarter alone. George commended Oubre’s physical defense — saying “Kelly has that dog in him, and he don’t back down from nobody” — while aiming to force Orlando star Franz Wagner to his left.

And when the game got spicy early, Oubre naturally was involved. Following a whistle for a moving screen, Oubre and Orlando’s Paolo Banchero got in each other’s faces to exchange words. Both were called for a double technical.

“They know I’m front line,” Oubre said. “I’m going to smile. I’m going to laugh in your face, because I do have a black belt. Hopefully it doesn’t get to that. But I don’t think it will, because I’ve learned to control my zen.”

Consider that evidence that Oubre is still the crazy, wild-haired kid who may again face obscenities during a playoff game in Boston. And also of his matured approach, while riding an efficient, do-everything season.

“I’m still that guy, and I still have a lot to give,” he said. “So I’m just going to continue to get better 1% every day, until I’m at 99%. And then I let God take it from there.”