Sixers

Adam Aron: Fired Not Fired

By Kyle Scott

Published: Jun 25th, 2013 · 9:04 AM EDT

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Original photo: AKIRA SUWA, Inquirer

The Sixers are a mess. Early this morning, Adam Aron was forced to cite Mark Twain, after returning from a trip to Africa:

Just minutes ago, I got off a plane from vacation in Africa and saw press reports. A la Mark Twain, rumors of my demise greatly exaggerated

— Adam Aron (@CEOAdam) June 25, 2013

I'm delighted to report that this is an immensely exciting time in my career. Moral of story: don't go on a faraway vacation!

— Adam Aron (@CEOAdam) June 25, 2013

What?

That’s Aron denying that he has been fired, and he seems to indicate – though not say explicitly – that he will remain the team’s CEO. The Sixers’ somewhat awful PR apparatus told John Gonzalez of CSN Philly late Monday night that Aron remains CEO. But if that’s the case, then why the no comment earlier in the day? How do you not stop all the nonsensical reports by saying, “Hey, ah, no, our CEO hasn’t been fired.” If a public company, like the ones Aron and Joshua Harris are so fond of, pulled that stunt, it would have cost shareholders millions.

Apparently, Harris, too, may have been out of the country, so the responsibility to handle a report about whether the face of the team had been fired or not fell to PR man Mike Preston, who, obviously, had no idea what the fuck was going on. The sheer amount of reports about Aron’s demise would seem to indicate that Aron, a minority owner, will take on a different role with the team. Whether that means he’ll still be CEO… we don’t know. And neither did Preston. THAT CAN’T HAPPEN. Two years in, the new ownership group has been a disaster. And now, in a summer with so many changes, they aren’t even communicating with the media and their fans. Going into the draft, the Sixers have no coach, perhaps no CEO, and a GM that no one knows anything about. That is a failure on so many levels. If there’s one off-season where the team should be oversharing with its fans, it’s this one. But no. The coaching search doesn’t seem to exist, the GM is holed up in a office somewhere with a TI-83, and the CEO can’t comment on reports of his firing because he’s on a fucking safari in Africa. What the hell is going on?