The Philadelphia 76ers have been a lost franchise over the last couple of years. A team that’s in a big market has not reached 20 wins since 2013 and they’ve just stockpiled pick after pick after pick while putting out a less than stellar product on the court.
Something had to be done to get the team to look like a respectable NBA franchise again and not an opponent for the Harlem Globetrotters. In comes new 76ers ‘Chairman of Basketball Operations’, Jerry Colangelo.
According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, the leagues owners pushed for NBA commissioner Adam Silver to step in and make something happen.
Since the summer of 2014, NBA owners have been lobbying the league’s front office to step in with regard to the direction of the Philadelphia 76ers, sources told ESPN.com on Monday night. It was that effort that helped lead to the hiring of Jerry Colangelo to a senior position earlier Monday, the sources said.
Owners routinely complained about the economic drag the 76ers were inflicting on the league as the revenues of one of the largest-market teams — a franchise expected to contribute more robustly to league revenue-sharing — sagged. For many teams, games featuring the starless and woeful 76ers as the visiting team have been the lowest-attended of the season, sources said.
And USA Today’s Sam Amick also says that Silver had a hand in the hiring.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver had a significant hand in Philadelphia’s decision to hire Colangelo and placed a call to Colangelo to gauge his interest, two people familiar with the situation told USA TODAY Sports.
But finally, Jerry Colangelo confirmed the report on the Bickley & Marotta show on 98.7 in Arizona (starting at around the :30 mark) that the commissioner and 76ers ownership ‘pleaded’ for his help.
Hopefully Colangelo can get this 76ers train wreck back on track and steer one of the most decorated franchises in the NBA back to some winning ways.
