The Sixers may have more connections with Melbourne United, who they'll play in their first preseason game Friday night, than any other basketball team in the world.
It's not just head coach Brett Brown's years as a coach in Australia, which he calls "a second home," or Ben Simmons being born in Melbourne, or one of Brown's players from his first year as coach of the Sixers, Casper Ware, now being Melbourne United's star point guard (
see story). The number of links between the teams defies coincidence.