There are many confusing things about the Sixers’ Jerry Colangelo era, but the most baffling may be that opposing teams actually thought Jerry could and would leverage his duties with Team USA and in Philadelphia to get star players to come to the Sixers.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski, “the NBA restricted Colangelo’s reach in an apparent attempt to limit his access and influence over star players … there was concern that Colangelo’s powerful pathways and year-round lines of communication to elite American players could be leveraged into a free-agent advantage for the 76ers.” Because of the beliefs of those rival execs, the league office put limitations on Colangelo’s “ability to communicate directly to players outside of USA Basketball activities and how much formal impact he can have in the final voting process for national team and Olympic rosters.” Although Papa Jerry has stepped down as Chairman of Basketball and is now just an “adviser,” the restrictions will remain in place as long as he has a relationship with Philadelphia.

Jerry has lost his vote for Team USA’s final national team and Olympic roster, and he has to let GMs know if and when he contacts players or their agents.

I guess that is the price you pay for getting your son a job these days.