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Mike Gansey Affirms that Sixers “Don’t Get LeBron Without Jaylen, That’s For Sure”
By Matt Schultz
Published:
Sixers President of Basketball Operations and possible genius Mike Gansey threw out the first pitch at the Phillies game on Tuesday before joining TMac and Kruk in the booth, where he spoke about signing LeBron and dropped this great tidbit:
Exchange:
MCCARTHY: “How long after you acquired Jaylen did the phone ring, or did you… call LeBron’s folks and say, ‘We got Jaylen Brown?’”
GANSEY: “Yeah, I called Rich [Paul] right away and said, ‘Hey, like, we got Jaylen. Is there a chance LeBron would wanna come to us?’ And, you know, obviously, they said, ‘Yeah, you know, this changes some things.’ So they talked about it, and then, obviously the whole process of, whatever, three weeks or whatever it went, they were doing all their due diligence with LeBron and, you know, talking to our players and other teams and, you know, their representation and stuff, so it was, uh – yeah, it was a long process but, yeah, we don’t get LeBron without Jaylen. That’s for sure.”
We all knew this was the case, but it’s still pretty cool to hear it come from the guy who actually made the Jaylen trade and the phone calls and got LeBron to Philly. It’s interesting, too, how casual it sounds coming from Gansey when he tells the story. It really seems like Jaylen becoming available at such a low price happened out of nowhere and kind of fell into his lap, which led to the Sixers suddenly being attractive to LeBron, which also kind of fell into his lap. It doesn’t sound like Gansey was playing 4-D chess or anything. He was just making moves he thought were good, one at a time. Kind of feel like this is how I would sound if I was in his position: “Yeah, I dunno, we got the one guy who is pretty good, and then I called the other guy’s agent and said, ‘We’re pretty good now, if you’re interested in joining a team that’s good.’ And then he did. It was pretty sick. Yeah…”
And that’s not a knock. Gansey first had to take a big swing on Jaylen. That was a risk. There are plenty of naysayers out there who think Jaylen’s looming extension, bad advanced numbers, and weekly Twitch manifestos make him a toxic asset. But Gansey rolled the dice anyway, and then was rewarded for his boldness by getting interest from LeBron. That rules. That’s a skill. Boldness is a skill. Good for him. Good for us. Gansey might be a genius, or this stuff might’ve all just fallen into his lap. I don’t care which it is. Either way’s cool.
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com