The Philadelphia 76ers insist they're interest in Mike D'Antoni is unrelated to the recent hiring of Jerry Colangelo.

"Having a graybeard, true-veteran-type NBA coach has been discussed for a while as it relates to growing my staff," Brett Brown said. "Vance Walberg and Chad Iske left last year. We opted to take our existing staff, which I think is fantastic and I love and has been great to me, and grow them."

Brown said getting a new assistant coach has been in the works for a while.

"The timing is disturbing of the leak," he said of the news breaking Friday night, four days after Colangelo was hired. "We have been talking about it for a while."