We interrupt your Thursday evening ahead of a battle of winless NFL teams for this important announcement: the Sixers have a new head coach. As is often the case, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski was the first to announce the deal:

Woj then released a critical bit of info that should *hopefully* alleviate some concerns among Sixers fans:

Sixers GM Elton Brand signing off on the move -or at least not attempting to veto it outright with whatever power he actually wields- is a positive sign. Sure, the Sixers haven’t made any changes to their ridiculous “collaborative” front office structure after Brand spoke out about the ineffectiveness of the model over the course of his tenure as the team’s GM:

To be clear and frank, we feel that the collaboration days didn’t work too well. So I will be leading this search. I’ll make the recommendation to Josh (Harris) of course. We’re getting better and I’ve grown as a leader and general manager. I was put into the fire and had so many tough decisions to be a part of, but now I’m looking forward to putting my stamp on this thing and taking full accountability for what comes next.”

But is anyone really surprised? It will be interesting to see if Rivers ends up with some personnel say, as he spent the first four seasons of his Clippers tenure serving as the team’s President of Basketball Operations in addition to fulfilling his responsibilities as head coach. It’s worth noting that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer took the front office responsibilities away from Rivers ahead of the 2017-18 season, allowing him to focus solely on coaching.

Perhaps the hiring of Rivers will lead to a front office shakeup and a much-needed consolidation of power. One has to assume that the quick courtship between both parties likely indicates a shared vision between Elton Brand and Doc Rivers as the team enters an offseason begging for roster adjustments.

Are you happy with the hire? Would you have preferred Mike D’Antoni, Ty Lue, or a rising assistant coach à la Nick Nurse when he was hired by the Toronto Raptors?

Either way, the Sixers have added a former Head Coach of the Year who led the rival Boston Celtics to an NBA title in 2008.

Now the real question is, will Marc Zumoff continue to refer to the coach as Glenn or relent and acknowledge another “Doc”?