Sixers coach Brett Brown's foray into professional basketball came in 1989 in Melbourne, Australia. The sport boomed Down Under in the mid-1980s. It was new and it was cool, Brown said.
"It had this street feel. It was urban. It was American," Brown said. "And it had this cool merchandise and funky highlights. The young kids were playing it on the street. There's no snow, so you could play it every day. It had a real American pizzazz."
The country's professional league was stocked with American players, which Brown refers to as "American imports." Brown's first team - the 1988 Melbourne Tigers - was led by Drederick Irving, the father of Cleveland star Kyrie Irving.