76ers’ Brand Out For Season

Where’s that graphic again? Oh, yes.

Sigh. It’s looking likelier we can add another guy to it: Elton Brand, who Comcast SportsNet reports is having surgery and is out for the year. [via The 700 Level]

Are The 76ers Bringing Back The Old Jerseys?

Anybody who was ambivalent about the 76ers signing Elton Brand has to be swayed now. Before yesterday’s press conference introducing him to Philadelphia, Brand posed for photos. But he only posed in the throwbacks from the 1983 season.

The Sixers occasionally wore these Jerseys last year — they’re actually the jerseys the 76ers wore from 1978-1991 — and they are absolutely 100 million billion times better than their current ugly uniforms. (They are not as awesome as the ugly, ugly, ugly jerseys the 76ers wore from 1991-1994.) The blog Sixers 4 Guidos has been campaigning for months to bring back those jerseys; have their prayers been answered?

Old Sixers unis look great on Brand, BRING THEM BACK! [Sixers 4 Guidos]
[Thumbnail via Flickr user sixersphotos]

76ers Sign Actual Big Man

“Sixers Reach Verbal Agreement With Elton Brand.” Uh, Philly.com? You have the Daily News headlines to choose from. Use them.

So, yes, despite that oh-so-exciting headline, this is a pretty fantastic move: The 76ers went out and reached a verbal agreement with Elton Brand for a 5-year, $82 million deal. John Hollinger writes this move makes the 76ers instant contenders in the East.

Brand appeared headed back to the Clippers to team with ex-Warriors guard Baron Davis; the 76ers, though, cleared cap room by trading Rodney Carney and Calvin Booth — ha ha, somebody traded for Calvin Booth — plus a future first-round pick to the Timberwolves for a $2.8 million trade exemption. (What an exciting transaction!) Marc Stein writes that Brand also wanted to go East, where the centers are not as tall and the teams are not as good.

Shockingly, Brand’s surgeon says Brand’s injury — he missed almost all of last season while recovering from surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles’ tendon — is nothing to worry about. Reminiscent of the Phillies’ trade for a closer who came to his first press conference on crutches, the 76ers have signed a player coming off an injury. On the plus side, the Brad Lidge deal has worked out pretty well so far.