Sixers Announce Jerry Colangelo Will Be Chairman of Basketball Operations and Special Advisor

Well, no one saw this coming. Joshua Harris named Jerry Colangelo Chairman of Basketball Operations and Special Advisor, while at the same time giving Sam Hinkie (a somewhat patronizing?) vote of confidence.

Here’s a quick bio on Colangelo from Wikipedia:

Jerry Colangelo formerly owned the Phoenix Suns of the NBA, the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA, and the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball.

He became the youngest general manager in professional sports in 1968 after being hired as general manager for the Phoenix Suns. He has the second longest tenure running the same NBA franchise only to be exceeded by Red Auerbach of the Boston Celtics.

In the summer of 2005, Colangelo was named director of USA Basketball,

Colangelo has been known for a no-nonsense ownership style. Players like the Suns’ Dennis Johnson and Jason Kidd and the Diamondbacks’ Bobby Chouinard have been traded or released after their personal problems became public.

It would appear the Sixers have read their own (unfortunate) press clippings and finally realized that they need a basketball guy – a sports guy – to balance out the human side of the very paper-based rebuild.

On the surface, this would appear to be a terrific decision. Or at the very least, it looks good that the Sixers will have a basketball lifer to lend some credibility to what they’re doing and cover their asses when one of their 19-year-old players gets into melee.

Colangelo made it sound like he was looking for a new challenge at this point in his life and said this all happened within the last week and a half (which is exactly when the Okafor news came out).

Howard Eskin asked the first few questions – “It’s Howard, right?” Colangelo said – about who would be making the final call on players. The answer was murky. But Colangelo said he’ll always be available to the media. It was immediately evident that Colangelo was better at dealing with the media than Hinkie or Harris, who read his statement like he was delivering a third grade book report.

In short: If you thought the Sixers were fraudulent and not sincere with the rebuild, hiring Colangelo pretty much disproves that notion. “I think we’re ready to go to the next phase here,” Harris said.

Thoughts:

Hinkie says “like” a lot and speaks like a schoolgirl with a concerningly deep voice. “Being able to, like, have somebody like this in our group is a huge positive.”

Hinkie is handling this well, but this certainly seems like a stripping of his powers to some degree.

Harris seems a little too enamored with Colangelo “knowing all the best players,” almost like that’s a sole determinant in what makes a successful front office man. Or, like the Sixers have no one currently who does.

Hinkie’s shadow behind Harris is amazing:

Colangelo is speaking a lot like Andy MacPhail at his introduction. Information gathering phase.

Colangelo is absolutely running the room. “People can be successful selling widgets… much of that can be transferred into sports world. Much of that is learning. It’s a different culture. I think what they’re going through is a part of that.” Billionaire next to him shrugged off that tepid criticism.

Colangelo says, “When I took over USA Basketball, there needed to be a culturural change… and that happened.” Strong resume there, can’t lie.

Harris made it clear the Sixers are working to extend Brett Brown. Adrian Wojnarasreoakfowkoksakdfaiskdiskski backed it up.

“Seems to be a void of leadership, player wise,” Colangelo notes. Human element, coming in!

“How do we like sort of love him, and help him through this?” Hinkie on Okafor. Likeohmygod wetots lovehim.

Colangelo was asked if he’s moving to Philadelphia. He’s living in Phoenix.

Fun theory from (@Jt856): Adam Silver pushed for this to happen to stabilize a franchise in weird turmoil. I buy that. Colangelo is sort of like the fixer. Harris not really knowing much about Colangelo other than “he knows people!” lends some credence to that.

Takeaway: This is clearly a reaction to the Okafor stuff and all that it hinted at. But the question is: Was it the Sixers’ idea, to take this thing to the next level, or an optics thing to keep the league from intervening in some way? We’ll find out, I guess.

…

And I get to stay in Phoenix and work off my iPad?! Woot woot!

UPDATE: Woj with this bomb:

It is immediately unclear how long Hinkie will want to stay on the job with reduced power in the organization, and several league executives were already wondering on Monday if Colangelo would eventually persuade ownership to hire his son, Bryan, a former general manager with the Toronto Raptors and Phoenix Suns, into a high-ranking team position.

Whoa. Most anti-Hinkie take on the news from the most plugged in reporter there is. Noteworthy.