April 10, 2016
On Sunday afternoon, Joshua Harris emerged from the very same doors in the Wells Fargo Center’s Hall of Fame club as he did back on December 7th. The big difference was that this time, he had a different Colangelo by his side.
As expected, the Philadelphia 76ers’ managing general partner has tabbed 50-year-old Bryan Colangelo as the team’s president of basketball operations. Much less expectedly, Jerry Colangelo is going to relinquish his role as chairman of basketball operations but will stay on as a special advisor to Harris. The elder Colangelo held the position for all of four months, an action-packed four months.
According to Harris, the Sixers started to target Bryan Colangelo at the beginning of the year. Harris expressed that Jerry Colangelo wasn’t involved in the process that led the Sixers to his son, an experienced executive with stops in both Phoenix and Toronto. For many, that is going to be one tough sell.
“Jerry truthfully, to be fair to Bryan and to be fair to himself and us, recused himself from the entire process,” Harris said. “He wasn’t involved. So I think that he was on board for the approach, but he wasn’t involved with it.
“This was really my decision and now we’re managing the optics,” he added. “And it just so happens that Bryan was the best [candidate] for the job and we happen to have his Hall of Fame dad along in the organization.”
The shadow of Sam Hinkie, the other man who sat on the podium with Harris and Jerry Colangelo back in December, still loomed large over the day. Harris made it clear in his opening statement (and many times after) that he was appreciative of everything Hinkie had done in terms of “establishing a base.” Furthermore, Harris said that he’s “sorry” the architect of The Process has left the organization.
Colangelo echoed Harris’ sentiments in terms of the situation he’s stepping into, which is full of draft picks, cap space and some potential (albeit extremely risky) high-end young talent. He touched on sharing a brief phone conversation with Hinkie on Saturday night.
Harris and Colangelo both expressed that they were disappointed with Hinkie’s resignation. Yet it does seem clear that when it comes to Hinkie’s point of view, bringing on the younger Colangelo was a bridge too far.
“Both Sam and I and others recognized the need to add talent to the organization,” Harris said. “We’ve always been upfront about wanting to do that and when it came down to it, we couldn’t agree on how to do it and who the right person was.”
Harris said that he hadn’t lost faith in Hinkie, although it’s extremely fair to wonder how bringing both Colangelos into the fold didn’t represented at least some lack of confidence.
At the very same year-end press conference last season, Harris famously declared that he considered an 18-64 season a success, which many took as a sign of remaining on board with Hinkie’s long-term plan. When he was asked the same question today with the Sixers still sitting on 10 wins, Colangelo stepped in. During the same three years that he was out of basketball, Colangelo thought what Hinkie did in Philly was productive.
“To Sam’s credit, he went through a very difficult slog through that [losing],” Colangelo said. “Again, whether or not he’s moving forward with it is irrelevant but the fact that he put the effort forth, he deserves credit for it.
“Again, it’s something that isn’t going to sit well with everybody, but the people that understand what was involved and where we are now, I think we’re excited about that,” he added.
So, does this mean the end of The Process? Or was The Process simply heading toward a transitional phase anyway?
“I really want to make sure that everyone understands this is a transition from this measured rebuilding process to sustainable winning,” Colangelo said. “That’s what is important to establish. We will be pragmatic, we will be utilizing these tools and resources.”
And we will have to find out what Bryan Colangelo can do with what Sam Hinkie left him. What we already know is that the Philadelphia 76ers have hired an outsider to run basketball operations, and he happens to be the son of the man who won a power struggle in the front office, the same man who will now in all likelihood disappear somewhere into the shadows.
Much more detailed analysis to come in the next few days.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
