Before Mike Gansey became a Sixers executive, he was a hard-nosed high school player that earned LeBron James’ respect
Steve Gansey recently posted an old photo that featured James and his older brother, Mike, as Ohio high school basketball players. They never competed against each other, but shared a mutual respect.
Steve Gansey was playing with his son a few weeks ago, as ESPN hummed in the background, when he heard something unusual. It was Kendrick Perkins, talking to his NBA Today co-hosts, about a photo that recently went viral.
It was taken in 2000, and was on the front page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s sports section. Ten high school basketball players from Northeast Ohio stood side by side, in their respective jerseys.
The group had been voted by coaches and athletics directors as the best players in the region. There was Maverick Carter and Chester Mason (“Chet the Jet”) toward the left. Brian Swift was closer to the middle, alongside Mike Patrick.
But what caught the commentators’ attention was to the far right: future Sixers president of basketball operations Mike Gansey, of Olmsted Falls High School, alongside future Hall of Famer LeBron James, of St. Vincent-St. Mary.
Gansey was a junior at the time; James was a freshman. Steve Gansey, Mike’s younger brother, posted the photo on X on July 1, with an eyeball emoji, promptly setting the Sixers fan base ablaze with speculation.
Before long, it received hundreds of retweets. Sixers fans sent Gansey direct messages asking if he had any information on whether James would consider coming to Philadelphia.
He says he didn’t.
“I’m getting DMs like ‘Hey if you make this happen, free cheesesteaks,’” Steve said. “And I’m like, ‘OK, alright, cool!’”
The post eventually reached the NBA Today crew. As the younger Gansey held a Sheriff Woody doll in one hand, and a Buzz Lightyear doll in the other, he overheard the panel referring to him.
“Perk goes, ‘Gansey’s little brother posted this picture,’” Gansey said. “And I’m like, ‘Uh oh. Mike’s going to be [ticked].’”
Mike was not upset. The younger Gansey, who coached for 14 years (seven as head coach) in the NBA G-League, asked if his brother wanted him to delete the photo. The Sixers executive said, “No dude, it’s cool.” But he certainly wasn’t as enthusiastic as Sixers fans.
“Mike is a very humble person,” Steve said. “He doesn’t like attention and all that. I just think it’s one of the coolest pictures, and it’s not just Mike and LeBron.
“There are some unbelievable basketball players in that Cleveland, Akron, northeast Ohio area. I’m glad they’re getting some love, too.”
Steve has long teased his brother about his run-in with the future Hall of Famer. When Mike was working in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ front office, his brother would joke that he’d make T-shirts with the photo printed on the front.
Mike’s response: “No. Do not do that.”
Steve also sent the photo to Koby Altman, Cleveland’s president of basketball operations, who worked closely with Gansey in the Cavaliers’ front office.
“Koby loved it,” Steve said. “He laughed. He said, ‘Oh I know, we’ve talked about it a couple times.’”
The truth is that James and Gansey never competed against each other on their high school teams. Olmsted Falls and St. Vincent-St. Mary were in different regions.
Olmsted Falls, which is on the west side of Cleveland, was grouped with schools in northwest Ohio, closer to Toledo. St. Vincent-St. Mary’s is south of Cleveland, and often played schools in the Akron-Canton area.
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It is possible they overlapped playing AAU ball, but if they did, Steve didn’t hear about it. Coincidentally, the elder Gansey also played AAU ball against former Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, who is also from the Cleveland area.
“He went to St. Ignatius,” Steve said. “Mike battled him.”
Despite their lack of competitive overlap, James and Mike Gansey shared a mutual respect. Over the years, Gansey frequently referred to the future Hall of Famer as the “greatest of all time.”
And James thought highly of the future executive, too. One time, when Gansey was playing in Europe, and James was in the midst of his first stint with the Cavaliers, the two brothers went to a game at Quicken Loans Arena (now Rocket Arena).
Gansey knew some of Cleveland’s players, from training with them during the summer, and went down to the tunnel to say hello.
“And we were probably 100 feet from where LeBron and his people were talking,” Steve recalled. “Someone said, ‘Ganz is over there.’ And LeBron totally walked the opposite way of where he was going, and went to dap up Mike, to say, ‘What’s up, hey man, how you doing?’ Just a quick hello.
“It just shows you the respect. And I was like, ‘Man, Mike, he really walked 100 feet over here, and just dapped you, and walked directly right back. That’s pretty cool.’ And Mike’s like, ‘Yeah, yeah, he’s a great guy,’ and that was it. I’ll always remember that.”
The Sixers president of basketball operations isn’t the type to brag about any of this, or even mention it. He has never been one for the limelight. His high school coach, Pat Donahue, described him as a team player, almost to a “fault.”
Gansey was one of the best players in the state (he came in second in Mr. Basketball voting in the state of Ohio in 2001, behind none other than James) but wasn’t a ball hog.
If anything, he was the opposite. There were times when Donahue would have to talk to Gansey, midgame, to encourage him to take more shots. Even in AAU, competing with players who were trying to get the attention of college schools, he was very much team-first.
“He very rarely came out and said, ‘OK, I’m gonna hit five threes in this game to try to get the coach from Duke to pay attention to me,’” said Donahue. “He was more, ‘Hey, I’ll pass to this guy,’ or ‘I’ll do this, I’ll get some rebounds and help the team win.’ And he’s always been that way.”
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Despite the future executive’s selfless style of play, he finished his high school career with 1,909 points, which is still the boys’ basketball all-time record at Olmsted Falls. Donahue felt badly that his pupil wasn’t able to reach 2,000, and mentioned this to him after his senior season.
“I walked up to him and I said, ‘Mike, I’m sorry, 90 more points, or whatever it was,’” Donahue said. “‘I could have gotten you that by doing stuff for you.’ And he goes, ‘Coach. I don’t care. That doesn’t mean anything.’ And that’s just the way he is. It didn’t mean anything to him.”
Gansey’s professional basketball career was short-lived. He had a short stint in the D-League (now the G-League) and played in Germany, Italy, and Spain for a few years. But that experience was not for naught.
Those who know Gansey best say he was quietly studying the players around him, through an entirely different lens. As his teammates thought about how to attack opponents, the future executive was pondering roster construction and player makeup.
When he reached the Cavaliers’ front office, he was well-acquainted with the NBA. But that didn’t keep Gansey from his meticulous preparation. He would attend Summer League games with Donahue in Las Vegas, bringing a big notepad to scribble down thoughts during games.
“He’d be at every Summer League game, and he would sit there,” Donahue said, “and this is before he was the [general manager] of the Canton [G-League] team. He would watch every summer league game. Every one.
“And he would sit there with his notebook, and he would just take notes about the players. I don’t even know how much say he had in what the Cavs did. He just wanted to be prepared.”
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His little brother and the former Olmsted Falls coach say that in Gansey, the Sixers are getting a hard-working executive, who keeps his head down but is aggressive, just like he was as a player.
And so far, his Philadelphia tenure is off to a promising start (with the exception of a Phillies mishap in June).
“Oh he loves it,” Steve said. “He loves it. He loves the city, loves everyone embracing him. Mike felt really bad about that no-hitter he jinxed, but I joked with him, ‘I think you made up for it a little bit.’
“I mean, time will tell, but you got them off your back at least. So, that’s pretty impressive, even though you haven’t played any games yet.”
