Skip to content
Sixers

Sixers’ GM Elton Brand on Raptors’ winning NBA championship: ‘It just shows me we were close, we are close’

Brand's goal is to get the Sixers to the next level of the NBA playoffs after a heartbreaking series loss to the eventual champs.

Kawhi Leonard, center, of the Raptors is mobbed after hitting the game-winning shot in game 7 of the NBA Eastern Conference semifinals at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on May 12, 2019.
Kawhi Leonard, center, of the Raptors is mobbed after hitting the game-winning shot in game 7 of the NBA Eastern Conference semifinals at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on May 12, 2019.Read moreCHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer

Elton Brand, the 76ers general manager, was asked Tuesday if seeing the Toronto Raptors win the NBA title this season makes him hungrier.

Kawhi Leonard’s 15-foot fadeaway jumper at the buzzer lifted the Raptors to a 92-90 victory over the Sixers in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series at the Scotiabank Arena.

Toronto went on to defeat the Golden State Warriors in six games to win the franchise first NBA title.

»READ MORE: The Sixers could have won it all, but loss to Raptors could prove beneficial | Marcus Hayes

“Maybe [going to] overtime, and possibly being us [in the finals], but hats off to the champs,” Brand said of the Sixers being so close to winning a title, before adding Raptors president Masai Ujiri and general manager Bobby Webster "did a great job putting that team together, they did a great job coaching and then the players played. Hats off to the champs. ... It just shows me we were close, we are close.”

»READ MORE: The Sixers can take a lot of lessons from the Raptors in the NBA Finals, one in particular | David Murphy

So, Brand’s goal this summer is to get better through the draft and free agency to be able to compete at that level.

" It definitely hurts," he said of losing that heartbreaker to the eventual champions. “From the players, the coaches, my staff we want to grow and get better.”