P.J. Tucker mourns death of a mentor as Sixers prepare to face Celtics in Game 3

Friday should have been a joyous day for P.J. Tucker.

The 76ers power forward turned 38 and was playing the Boston Celtics in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Wells Fargo Center was electric, not only for the playoff game, but because Joel Embiid received his MVP award before the contest.

But Tucker played with a heavy heart while mourning the loss of mentor Lance Blanks, who died Wednesday.

Blanks served as general manager of the Phoenix Suns from 2010-13. He’s responsible for bringing Tucker back to the NBA on Aug. 1, 2012, after five seasons overseas.

At the time, he signed Tucker to a minimum contract, telling him that they would turn it into millions. Blanks also told Tucker, a quintessential role player, that he had a special talent and showed Tucker the “toughest love.”

Blanks was right about everything.

The Suns re-signed Tucker to a three-year, $16.5-million deal on July 23, 2014. He’s made over $60 million during his career. Tucker’s gritty play has enabled him to affect a game without him scoring a point.

And he’s now showing that same tough love Blanks showed him to teammate Paul Reed. He sees the same things in the third-year center that Blanks saw in him.

“It’s actually deeper than that,” Tucker said of his relationship with Blanks, who was 56. “It’s from school.”

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They connected over both having played at Texas. Tucker met his mentor while playing at Texas, and Blanks, the former NBA player, was working as a scout.

“He was a scout with the Spurs, then Cleveland, when I was coming out,” Tucker said. “And Cleveland wanted to draft me. So he helped me kind of navigate the beginning of the draft and kind of what to expect and everything.

“But to bring me back in that situation [with the Suns] and not promise me anything, and be there every step of the way up until this point, nobody has believed in me more than him.”

The success Tucker has experienced the past few seasons are things Blanks thought of several seasons ago.

“For him to call me a champion before I did it and now to be in it, fighting for another one, it’s a lot right now to digest,” said Tucker, who won an NBA title two seasons ago with the Milwaukee Bucks.

But this was supposed to be a celebratory day for Tucker. His family is with him to enjoy the game and celebrate his birthday. None of that was on his mind, though.

“There’s a lot of emotions,” he said. “It’s strange. It’s weird. I don’t know. I’m just here, trying to get through the day.”

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The Bucks made waves Thursday by firing coach Mike Budenholzer because of the their first-round exit.

This came after Milwaukee had the NBA’s best regular-season record of 58-24.

Doc Rivers said a coach getting fired is something his peers have to deal with.

“Listen, Bud got fired, being his team [won] 69% [of their games],” he said. “They won a Finals two years ago. It’s just part of our jobs, you know? We’re the ones. It’s easier, you know?

“I’ve had games where, I won’t say teams, where our guys had the best shots they had analytically for the whole season, and we lost, and now I’m here.”

The Los Angeles Clippers fired Rivers after the Clippers lost in the second round of the playoffs in 2020. The Sixers hired him a couple of days later.