The most consequential friendship in Philadelphia basketball was put to the test one more time Monday night, and Brett Brown, Elton Brand, and the rest of the 76ers organization ought to be shaking T.J. McConnell's hand and thanking him every day for refusing to make a strange and tiresome problem worse than it already is.
McConnell is Markelle Fultz's closest friend on the Sixers roster. "It's not even a friendship," McConnell said. "He's more like a brother to me." And the bond between them is all that has prevented the scenes that played out Monday and Tuesday, during and after the Sixers' 119-114 victory over the Suns, from spiraling into a crazier controversy.