ORLANDO – Courtside at the Amway Center on Wednesday night, an hour before tipoff, a man in his mid-20s extended his right hand to Elton Brand, the 76ers' general manager. The man wasn't wearing any official Sixers apparel or paraphernalia, but he did have a red T-shirt on, and that was close enough.
"Thank you," he said to Brand. They shook hands, and the man didn't walk away as much as he bounced away, apparently pleased as punch that his favorite basketball team had just traded for star swingman Jimmy Butler. The Sixers now had what they had long coveted: a third star, the required minimum in today's NBA for a team to entertain realistic expectations of winning a championship.