PHILADELPHIA — At yet another franchise crossroads, the 76ers need to think big. Bigger even than which coach can draw up the right plays for Joel Embiid and keep a player such as Tyrese Maxey progressing.
After firing Doc Rivers on Tuesday, the Sixers need to look at this hire as a civic venture. How can they reignite a fan base, even grow it? Process 2.0? Good lord, no. (I still think Process 1.0 was a savvy move, just followed by a seemingly endless string of dumb personnel decisions.)
So what can the Sixers do to have everyone around here rooting for success?
Hire Dawn Staley. Right now. The most important coach in women’s basketball would instantly become the most important coach in all of basketball, and maybe the most important coach in the history of this city.
It’s been suggested before … Marcus Hayes wrote about calling South Carolina’s coach in these pages in 2020. He was right then. Since, the pride of North Philly has won her second NCAA title, and the Sixers have bowed out in the second round again and again and again.
The Sixers, of course, have a massive reason right now to care about being strong and savvy civic stewards. A Market Street arena of their own could depend on restoring the goodwill of the city.
You smartly say that Staley has never coached pro ball and doesn’t know the league. Sure, but assume that Staley, who talked to the Portland Trail Blazers in 2021 about their head-coaching vacancy, is at least smarter than you or me when it comes to these things. One obvious trait of Staley’s from observing her at fairly close range is that she knows exactly what she knows and doesn’t know. She knows the NBA is a players’ league. Let’s not forget she’s one of the best players this city has ever produced. She thinks like a player.
Say she takes the Sixers’ call. Assume she’d come in with staffing ideas that fill in the gaps in her own knowledge. (She’s always done that, not afraid to hire head coaches with ideas of their own to sit next to her.) She wouldn’t have to figure out how to be the boss. When you’ve coached the United States Olympic team on a mission to win gold or you’ve failed — and she didn’t fail — you know pressure. She could handle this kind of spotlight.
There is another local figure who also has won a couple of NCAA titles and would be a popular choice. But let’s look at it this way … if the Sixers, and I’m talking about the owners, actually valued Jay Wright, they had many chances to prove it over the years by going after his players.
Of course, they’ve done the exact opposite. Even beyond trading Mikal Bridges on draft night in 2018. Imagine if the Sixers had targeted Jalen Brunson when he was in Dallas, and decided they wanted that guy with the ball.
Nope, none of that. Let Knicks fans dream about going after Wright if that job ever opens. Sixers fans get to imagine what life would be like if Brunson, Bridges, and Josh Hart supported Embiid, and whether just maybe that could have gotten them past the second round.
Staley, of course, got her coaching start at Temple, when she didn’t even think she wanted to coach. That worked out so well that when Dave O’Brien, the Temple athletic director who hired her, moved on to Northeastern, he tried to hire Staley for the men’s job there.
I’ve been wary about writing “Call Dawn” when the Temple and Penn State men’s jobs opened in the last few years. You can’t offer her a cut in pay, claiming it’s a chance to make history.
The Sixers job is different. This would be the biggest news in the basketball world. It would fit Staley’s own vision of always reaching for higher ground in her profession.
What if it fails? You seriously think Staley would do worse than a 33-10 third quarter in an elimination game? You don’t think she’d have interesting ideas on how to use Embiid at both ends of the court? You don’t think some offensive innovator wouldn’t want to join her staff for a historic ride?
But say it does fail. Say the Eastern Conference finals remain just out of reach under Sixers coach Dawn Staley.
It would be the grandest failure possible. It would be a big swing.
And if it connects? The success would be out of sight. The whole city would be along for this ride.
