Elton Brand is well aware of Philadelphia history. When he told friends he was leaning toward signing with the 76ers, they said, "You know they booed Santa Claus, right?"
"And I told them, 'He had 30,000 people with no gifts,'"
Brand said Wednesday after signing a five-year, $82-million contract with the Sixers. "What are they supposed to do?"
Sixers president Ed Stefanski got a gift when Brand unexpectedly opted out of his contract with the Clippers last week. As it turns out, it was a gift that kept on giving.
According to Brand's agent, David Falk, the Clippers' notoriously cheap owner, Donald Sterling, might as well have chartered a plane and flown Brand to Philly -- except that would've cost too much.
After Brand opted out of his deal, Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy called Falk to say Sterling had reluctantly placed a take-it-or-leave-it offer on the table, and that the penny-pinching owner would be just as happy if Brand turned it down.
"If you're a franchise worker in any organization, you want to be wanted,"
Falk said. "I think it was disturbing. . . . It was basically, 'Accept it or don't accept it.' And that's a very difficult position to accept if you're a player of Elton's stature and you've done as much for a franchise as Elton has done."
Whether Brand does as much for the Sixers as, say, Kevin Garnett did for the Celtics remains to be seen. But his signing goes a long way toward further shifting power toward the East and gives the Sixers their first legitimate superstar since Allen Iverson was traded in 2006. And Brand, a two-time NBA sportsman of the year, won't require nearly the maintenance.
How Stefanski positioned himself for Brand should not be lost on Knicks president Donnie Walsh, who is diligently trying to shed salary and spend responsibly so he can be ready to pounce when another player of Brand's ability becomes available. "All we kept saying was, 'We need an opportunity,'"
Stefanski said. "The opportunity did come and we were there. We were prepared."
To complete the Brand signing, Stefanski dealt Rodney Carney and Calvin Booth to Minnesota along with a protected first-round pick for a conditional second-round pick.
Brand, 29, is a slight risk coming off an Achilles tendon injury that sidelined him for all but eight games last season. But he's one of only four active players with career averages of at least 20 points and 10 rebounds a game, joining Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, and Garnett.
Brand, who grew up in Peekskill, said the Warriors offered more money -- but not as much as they could have under the cap because they also have to re-sign shooting guard Monta Ellis, a restricted free agent. Brand's initial idea -- to re-sign with the Clippers and play with Baron Davis, who opted out and agreed to terms with L.A. -- never got beyond the planning stages. "There was definitely no underground handshake between Baron Davis and myself,"
Brand said. "That is definitely not true."
Other anticipated trades and signings were consummated Wednesday after the salary cap for 2008-09 was set and the moratorium on player movement was lifted. They included Yi Jianlian to the Nets for Richard Jefferson; Jermaine O'Neal to Toronto for T.J. Ford; the draft-night deal that sent Jerryd Bayless to Portland; Chris Paul getting an extension from New Orleans and Jose Calderon from Toronto; Corey Maggette signing with the jilted Warriors; Marc Gasol signing with Memphis; DeSagana Diop back to Dallas; and Beno Udrih re-signing with Sacramento.
Also, the Heat signed three-point shooter James Jones to a five-year deal that gives Miami cap flexibility after two years to deal with pending free agent Dwyane Wade, and the Bucks signed center Andrew Bogut to a five-year, $73 million extension. The Wizards' Gilbert Arenas won't sign his six-year, $111 million extension until he returns from Asia later this month.
