Since he was forced to remain on the sidelines following a shoulder injury only five games into the season, many have forgotten about Markelle Fultz. With all the attention on his fellow rookies like Ben Simmons, Lonzo Ball and Jayson Tatum, just to name a few, he is not being thought of as a rookie capable of changing a team’s fortunes, and even contend for the Rookie of the Year Award.
However, Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown continues to work with him, in the hopes of speeding up his development further, and bring out the best in him as a basketball player. He even revealed recently, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN, that he lets him watch Jon Gruden films to inspire him, which he and the organization thinks is the right thing to do.
“Really just sitting down and watching lots of film and playing sort of the Jon Gruden quarterbacks school is the analogy that makes the most sense to me, that might make sense to everybody here,” Brown said.
Now that he is nearing a return, Fultz will be able to work out and regain his form, but being the veteran that he is, Brown understands that the mental aspect of the game is as important as the physical demands on a player. Gruden is one of the best to ever coach in the NFL, and the success he’s had at a young age, could motivate the 19-year-old Washington product to also strive to achieve that in his NBA career.
It remains to be seen if the film sessions will work wonders for him, but Brown definitely chose the right person for Fultz to learn from. Should he play better when he comes back, the Sixers coaching staff will deserve a lot of credit for it, and should give them more reason to continue their development plan for their prized rookie.
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