By Lee Strawther
The Sporting Tribune
The John R. Wooden Award will celebrate it’s 50th anniversary this season. Leading up to the award ceremony on April 10, 2026, The Sporting Tribune in partnership with the Wooden Award and the Los Angeles Athletic Club will highlight past winners of the Wooden Award and the Legends of Coaching Award.
Duke University head coach Mike Krzykewski has had more national championship contending teams than you can shake a stick at, but his 1998-99 squad, led by sophomore Elton Brand, has been regarded among the most talented teams Coach K has had in his 42 seasons in Durham, North Carolina.
Elton Tyron Brand was born March 11, 1979 in Cortlandt, New York and attended neighboring Peekskill High School where by the close of his senior year (1997) he was ranked among the top players in the country.
Brand helped his teams win two state championships, and when it was all said and done he was not only chosen New York State Mr. Basketball, but was also named to both the McDonald’s All-American and First-Team Parade All-American teams.
Brand had been recruited heavily during his successful prep career, and decided to enroll at Duke University to play along with other elite hoopers, something he had become accustomed to since playing AAU basketball with future NBA stars Lamar Odom and Ron Artest.
He started in 18 games in his freshman year, averaging 13.4 points and 7.3 rebounds per game, and was a dominant force on that Blue Devils team that won the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season title and earned a No. 3 ranking in the season’s final AP poll.
He was also named USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year, an annual honor awarded by USA Basketball to the top American male basketball player after participating in the 1998 Goodwill Games in New York.
As a sophomore, Brand’s dominance in the post led the Blue Devils to the national championship game where they lost to the Connecticut Huskies. Brand was not only named the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year that season, but took home First Team All-American honors, in addition to being named the National Player of the Year after garnering the coveted John R. Wooden Award.
With his two years of success at the collegiate level in tow, the 6-9 power forward opted to leave Duke after his sophomore season to enter the 1999 NBA draft. He was selected the first overall pick by the Chicago Bulls and ended his first season averaging 20.1 points and 10 rebounds per game, while sharing NBA Rookie of the Year honors with Houston’s Steve Francis.
Despite his personal successes the first two years, the Bulls finished with the second worst record in the league at 17–65 his rookie year and 15-67 the following season. He matched his rookie averages with 20.1 points and 10.1 rebounds per game in year two, and his 3.9 offensive rebounds per game were second-best in the NBA that season.
Brand would be traded to the Los Angeles Clippers prior to the start of the 2001-02 season, however, and became the first Clipper since Danny Manning (1994) to be selected to an All-Star team.
He played seven seasons with the Clippers before injuries began to take their toll, most notably a ruptured Achilles tendon in 2007 which significantly impacted his career. He also had surgery in 2002 to repair a minor cartilage tear in his right knee, suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in 2008 and in 2011 dislocated his right pinky finger and sustained a fracture in his left hand.
In addition to the Bulls and Clippers, Brand would also play for the Philadelphia 76ers, Dallas Mavericks and Atlanta Hawks over his NBA career and was a two-time NBA All Star and an All-NBA Second Team selection in 2006, the same year he played for Team USA in the FIBA World Championships.
Prior to the start of the 2016 season Brand would sign for a second time with the 76ers, however just before the season was set to begin he announced his second (and final) retirement. Over his 17 year professional career he averaged 15.9 points, 8.5 rebounds, 1.7 blocks, and 2.1 assists per game in 1,058 games played.
“Me personally, playing, being out there in the mentoring role, it was great,” Brand said of his retirement. “I enjoyed it, but I really can’t be out there giving my all after 17 years, helping the team, being in the right place on defense and giving the coaching staff the energy that they deserve from their players. So I thought it was time.”
In December of that same year Brand was named the player development consultant of the Sixers, and the following season became general manager of the Delaware 87ers (now the Delaware Blue Coats), Philly’s G-League affiliate. Then, in September of 2018 he was promoted to GM of the Sixers, the position he still holds today.
“I know how passionate the fans are,” he said at the time of his hiring. “I understand what the expectations are.”
Brand is known for being a respected professional and a great mentor, and in the spring of 2000, during the onset of the global Coronavirus pandemic, he founded the Elton Brand Foundation with the mission of providing support to worthy causes in Chicago, Peekskill, New York and Durham, North Carolina. The Foundation received a $40,000 grant from the National Basketball Players Association for its philanthropic efforts at its inception.
“The harder I work, the luckier I get,” he would say of his general approach to his professional and personal life.