The Philadelphia 76ers are going to welcome back rookie point guard Markelle Fultz tonight as they take on the Denver Nuggets at home. Head coach Brett Brown made the announcement in his pregame press conference with reporters, catching them all off guard with the news.
“I want to tell you something about Markelle Fultz,” started coach Brett Brown. “He's going to play tonight.”
You could hear the shocked reactions from reporters trying to gather themselves and get as much detail on what led to the decision to bring Fultz back tonight, with just 10 games left in the NBA season.
Article Continues Below“Markelle Fultz will play tonight. It was his decision. It's been fuild and I get goosebumps telling you all that. I'm so proud of him and the people around him have done great things and I give that kid credit. He will be with us tonight.
“I'll bring him off the bench as Ben Simmons' backup and give him the ball. Justin will not play tonight and I'll move TJ (McConnell) over and we'll rotate the group accordingly. It's March, it's game 73, and he's 19. There needs to be an intellegient, realistic plan for him and we're all going to learn and see how this plays out. But it's just fantastic news for him.”
#Sixers coach Brett Brown making the announcement that @MarkelleF will play tonight pic.twitter.com/N62liefHjt
— Marc Narducci (@sjnard) March 26, 2018
Brown added that Fultz will not have any sort of minutes restriction in his first game back since October 23rd. Appeared in just four games this season, averaging six points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.8 assists on just 33.3 percent shooting. Hopefully, he'll come out and look like the rookie everyone expected to see when he was selected with teh first overall pick in trhe NBA Draft.