NBA's Silver: I connected Colangelo and 76ers
NBA commissioner Adam Silver did his best to debunk the conspiracy theories. He said during last weekend's board of governors meetings that Jerry Colangelo did not seek a job with the 76ers.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver did his best to debunk the conspiracy theories.
He said during last weekend's board of governors meetings that Jerry Colangelo did not seek a job with the 76ers.
"His getting directly involved with the 76ers was in part due to my reaching out to Jerry," Silver said. "Not because it was necessarily my idea that the 76ers needed an adviser. But once Josh Harris, the principal governor of the 76ers, said he would like to have a sounding board, someone with league experience, I was the one who connected him with Jerry Colangelo.
"I would say I feel a little bit of an obligation to defend Jerry here, because he was not looking for that opportunity."
Silver was responding to flak the team received for hiring Colangelo's son, Bryan, as president of basketball operations on April 10. That came four days after Sam Hinkie resigned as Sixers president and general manager after it became clear he would lose his power to Bryan Colangelo.
The commissioner said the Sixers were not looking at potential general managers after Jerry Colangelo came on board. Hinkie was fully engaged in his post at the time, and Bryan Colangelo was a finalist for the president's job of the Brooklyn Nets.
"Bryan Colangelo, who of course has ultimately ended up as president of basketball operations for the 76ers, was someone at the time that Josh excluded as a possibility because it was clear that Bryan was looking for a full-time job as the head of basketball for one of our teams," Silver said.
"So in essence, the 76ers ended up with Jerry because Bryan was not an option at the time."
Jerry Colangelo has said that he was not involved in the hiring of Bryan. Harris and the rest of the owners signed off on that.
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