PHILADELPHIA — If he still was a producer at NBC Sports Philadelphia, if he still was charged with arranging sit-downs with the sports stars who play in and pass through Philadelphia, Brian Schiff would be at the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday night for the 76ers’ game against the Brooklyn Nets, searching for an opening to coax a juicy sound bite out of Kyrie Irving. Get him to talk. Get some insight. That was his job for 18 years. Once the camera was off, though, Schiff also would be sure to seize the opportunity to press Irving for answers on behalf of the community he cares for and represents.
A member of the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, a local legend for a basketball coaching career that stretches more than 25 years and includes 15 gold medals at the Maccabi Games, Schiff has enough experience and credibility in the sport to challenge Irving on his endorsement of the kind of cockamamie conspiracy theories that can get Jewish people killed.
He assisted Steve Chadwin at Abington Friends when the school was a Friends League power. He hired Sandy Pyonin, who was Irving’s trainer for four years at the YM-YWHA of Union County (N.J.), in 1999 to coach a Maccabi team. He has boarded buses for Maccabi tournaments in Mexico City, Santiago, and Buenos Aires — buses that trundled along cordoned-off city streets and were escorted by police cars to make sure he and his players were safe from any terrorist threats.
