Over the course of the past calendar year, the 76ers lost two veteran assistants, as Vance Walberg, then 58 years old, and Chad Iske, who had accumulated 16 years of NBA experience, both decided to accept positions in Sacramento with George Karl. The 1,000-game winner had advanced each of their respective careers during an eight-year stint with Denver, and he sought them out upon being hired by the Kings.

Entering the current season, Brown decided against immediately filling the vacancies left by Walberg’s and Iske’s departures. He explained Friday, “I decided to hold on to a bunch of young coaches, good coaches. I felt that when you look at the abundance of 20-year olds that we had and the tilt toward development, the staff needed to mirror that. So I’m happy with the decision that we made to do that.”

Still, the idea of adding to the Sixers’ bench a seasoned, “gray-beard” presence, a person that Brown could “talk to on...a different level,” has been part of the organization’s long-term vision for some time. As a result of his own recent contract negotiations, Brown wasn’t able to devote his complete attention to the issue. Addressing the possibility, however, was brought back to the forefront upon the installment of Jerry Colangelo as the franchise’s Special Advisor to Managing Director and Chairman of Basketball Operations.

“We’ve always discussed that,” said Brown of the Sixers’ intent to tweak the dynamic of his staff. But, he admitted he didn’t necessarily expect to have the opportunity to join forces with someone holding NBA Coach of the Year credentials so quickly.

“It was a collaborative effort,” Brown said, referring to the work that he and Colangelo put in to bring Mike D’Antoni to the Sixers as Associate Head Coach. Colangelo made the initial pitch after starting with the Sixers two weeks ago.

Brown continued, “I think that for me, if I see it like I know I need to and should, and really use Mike for what he brings to the table, I got an amazing resource of the Phoenix Sun-type offense that I remember so well because we had to get through them in the Spurs days. In some ways, his availability caught me off guard. This is a good thing. He’s a hell of a resource.”

D’Antoni served as full-time head coach of Phoenix from 2004 through 2008, a period that overlapped with Brown’s 12-year run with San Antonio. During that stretch, the Suns and Spurs collided three times in the playoffs, with San Antonio winning each series. Phoenix has only qualified for the post-season once in the seven years since D’Antoni’s exit. He coached the New York Knicks from 2008 through 2012, then linked up with the Los Angeles Lakers for two campaigns. He wasn't in the league last year.

“Every time I called him, and we ended up recruiting him a little bit, you can hear the crack of a three-iron,” said Brown, laughing while describing his conversations with D’Antoni over the past few days. “I think we’re wired the same. We need to busy. We need to be active. We need to feel like we’ve got a purpose and a place. I like being busy, and I think he’s wired the same. When you ask him, ‘Why would you want to come in? What’s your motive?’ I’m bored, I missed the game. At some point, I think people are going to be not wise to look at him as a head coach again. And I think we should be excited here in the city of Philadelphia to have him.”

Inside the Sixers’ lockerroom on Friday, news of move was fresh, and well-received.

“It gets you excited,” T.J. McConnell said. The 23-year old was in middle school when D’Antoni took over Phoenix, and began using Steve Nash to run an innovative, uptempo, and potent offensive scheme that drove the Suns to four straight 50-win campaigns, and consecutive Western Conference Finals berths in 2005 and 2006.

A point guard, McConnell has on multiple occasions cited Nash as a significant influence. Not only did D’Antoni take Nash’s game to a level that resulted in back-to-back MVP honors, he was also instrumental in the development of another point guard, L’Andro Barbosa. On D’Antoni’s watch, the Brazilian import rapidly ascended to Sixth Man of the Year status in 2007.

“I mean, he’s just, I can only sum it up in him being an offensive genius,” said McConnell when asked about his memories of D’Antoni’s Suns teams. “He just gets it when it comes to that. He put the Suns team in such good positions offensively to score on every possession. It was hard not to watch them, because they were fun to watch.”

McConnell gave insight on the responsibilities of a point guard in D’Antoni’s system as well.

“I think you got to be a willing passer, and you got to be able to run up and down the floor and get people into [the] offense, and I kind of just noticed about Nash he pretty much used every pick and roll you could come up with, and he did it with purpose. That’s why it was so successful.”

D’Antoni’s first game with the Sixers is scheduled for Saturday, December 26th, when the team visits Phoenix.