Sixers Rumors: NBA ‘Had Hand in’ Jerry Colangelo Hiring
By Tim Kelly
More fallout on the Sixers’ front-office shake-up.
The move has drawn praise from some, cautious optimism from others and concern from a good amount of believers in “the process”.
The timing of the sudden press conference was strange, but considering that the Sixers started 1-19 and Jahlil Okafor’s recent string of off-the-court incidents, it was at least believable to think that Harris had stopped buying into the process, at least to some degree.
And maybe he did.
But according to Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today Sports, NBA commissioner Adam Silver may have had a hand in Colangelo ending up in Philadelphia.
"NBA Commissioner Adam Silver had a significant hand in Philadelphia’s decision to hire Colangelo and placed a call to Colangelo to gauge his interest, two people familiar with the situation told USA TODAY Sports.They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the private discussions.Don’t mistake this as a PR move or a consultation role. The 76ers hired Colangelo to rebuild the team faster than Hinkie."
It’s worth noting, that final block-quoted portion of that paragraph is more opinion than fact, but it’s probably a pretty well informed opinion.
My immediate reaction to the signing was to jump to the worst case scenario. That scenario would be one in which Harris, who I’ve perceived as a very good owner for having the foresight to take a risk on Hinkie’s plan, grew weary of the negative attention one of his business venture’s received in it’s third year and decided to skip out halfway.
There’s a case to be made that Hinkie has acquired a ton of assets — in terms of draft picks, already drafted players and cap space — and Colangelo is someone who is more respected across the league and will allow them to make best use of those assets, especially in terms of acquiring established NBA talent.
At the same time, my concern is that the team will deviate from its plan to build a championship team around a core of high draft picks that develop into stars and accept just being a four or five seed. And that’s not what any of this was supposed to be about.
It’s great that the Sixers have cap space and assets, all of which they can thank Hinkie for, but that doesn’t mean the team is going to be ready to compete for anything relevant in the next season or two. They should continue to try to build their team almost exclusively through the bounty of draft picks that they own, and hopefully they’ll begin to have a bit better luck in terms of the draft lottery.
If the team can be supplemented with a few veterans, the way the Minnesota Timberwolves have with their young corps, then that’s great. That’s what the Sixers should be doing in free-agency. They shouldn’t feel that the ample cap space they have is burning a hole in their pocket this off-season and jump into forcing a big contract onto someone like Dion Waiters.
This process was about not accepting being a mediocre, second-rate organization. Simple minded people can singularly point to the losses that the team has accumulated over the past two years, and into this year, but it’s not like the team has been trying to win games and failed at doing so.
If you don’t think tanking is “ethical”, then so be it. I’d argue that cheating your fanbase by accepting being a 38 win team and giving out max contracts to players that don’t deserve it is way more offensive, but that’s not the point.
Next: REPORT: Brett Brown 'very likely' to get extension
The Sixers are in year three of a process that Harris agreed to go through. For him to agree to this process, put his fanbase through what will turn out to be at least three seasons of pretty miserable basketball and then half-ass the process to appease outsiders would be the definition of unethical.