Brett Brown: 'We All Feel It'
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia is fired up for a new Sixers' season. You can feel it, I can feel it, and Brett Brown can feel it too.
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The Sixers are expected to have plenty of sellouts this year at the Wells Fargo Center, starting with the home opener on Friday night against the Celtics.
"I think it's fantastic," the Sixers' head coach told the 94WIP Morning Show on Tuesday. "It's a loud crowd. It's a passionate crowd. It's Philadelphia. We all feel it. We felt it at times last year. It's home court, true advantage. I'm excited for the fans. I'm excited for our players to be able to truly feel, kind of every night, the city. It's a very unique, as we all know, sporting city and you get a full Wells Fargo building and you feel it. You really feel it. I think it's a tremendous advantage when the crowd truly gets into the game, as we witnessed a few times last year."
Brett Brown on his excitement: "I get excited every year. You get fired up to start. This is the rhythm of a basketball coach." #Sixers
— SPORTSRADIO 94WIP (@SportsRadioWIP) October 17, 2017
Brown: This year, you can point at things that get you more excited. I feel that we have a team. 1st time, we have chance at continuity."
— SPORTSRADIO 94WIP (@SportsRadioWIP) October 17, 2017
The Sixers open the season on Wednesday in Washington D.C. against the Wizards. Joel Embiid, entering his fourth NBA season and fresh off a brand new $148 million contract extension, will be on minutes restrictions -- which Brown estimates in the "teens."
Brett Brown on Joel Embiid's minutes restrictions: "I'm really just a receiver of the medical staff's advice." #Sixers
— SPORTSRADIO 94WIP (@SportsRadioWIP) October 17, 2017
Brown on Embiid minutes restrictions: "Really none of it should surprise anybody. I'm kind of surprised people are surprised." #Sixers
— SPORTSRADIO 94WIP (@SportsRadioWIP) October 17, 2017
But with new players like respective No. 1 overall picks in Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz, and veterans J.J. Redick and Amir Johnson, to go along with Embiid, Dario Saric, Robert Covington, and Jerryd Bayless, the 76ers' expectations are appropriately high.
"I hope we have fun," Brown said. "Like, we've got a team that really can get up and down. I want to have fun, and I hope that that equals winning as well. But I hope we all have some fun this year."