Brett Brown Steps Down As Australia’s Head Coach

After losing his NBA position earlier this year, former Sixers head coach Brett Brown has now elected to step down from his international coaching job as well. Brown has resigned from his role as Australia’s head coach and won’t lead the Boomers at the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics, the program announced today in a press release.

“Whilst I have a deep and long-standing passion for Australian Basketball, I am currently unable to commit to coaching the Boomers at next year’s Olympic Games,” Brown said in a statement. “The uncertainties around the direction of my professional future unfortunately mean that I cannot commit to the time and preparation that this job deserves and requires. The difficulties around traveling internationally with my family during the pandemic have also contributed to my decision.”

Basketball Australia CEO Jerril Rechter said in a statement that the program is “naturally disappointed” that Brown will no longer be coaching the team, but understands his decision.

Brown initially finalized a deal to coach the Australian national team last November, after the club had clinched a spot in the Tokyo Olympics with its fourth-place finish at the 2019 World Cup. Those Olympics had originally been scheduled to begin on July 24, 2020. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the new start date for the Tokyo games is July 23, 2021.

Aron Baynes, Matthew Dellavedova, Joe Ingles, and Patty Mills are among the notable players expected to represent Australia in Japan next summer, as long as they’re able to work around the revamped NBA schedule. The selection of Brown as the Boomers’ head coach led to speculation that Sixers star Ben Simmons may elect to participate as well — it’s not clear if Brown’s resignation will influence Simmons’ decision one way or the other.

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