Mike Gansey’s toughness was never in doubt. At West Virginia, he was the sheriff of some ‘buck wild’ Mountaineers teams.
Gansey’s former teammates, coach, and even the team bus driver describe a gritty player with a big heart. Their group chat exploded when news broke that he’d be the next Sixers president.
It didn’t take John Beilein long to realize that new Sixers president Mike Gansey was going to fight for what’s his.
After strong play to tip off the 2004-05 season, West Virginia sputtered against Big East opponents, dropping five of its first six conference matchups. Prior to the Mountaineers’ Jan. 29 matchup at Providence, Beilein thought he had lost his team.
“We go to shootaround, and I just don’t feel the same spirit that we had back when we walked into January,” recalled Beilein, who served as West Virginia’s men’s basketball coach from 2002-07.
But Gansey — a junior transfer from Olmsted Falls, Ohio — willed the Mountaineers to a much-needed win over the Friars, correcting the team’s course.
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In the game’s closing moments, Gansey leaped to save a loose ball but missed, crashing to the floor. But the 6-foot-4 forward, donning his signature baggy T-shirt under his jersey, did not give up. On all fours, he quickly wormed his way toward the ball, gaining possession before passing it to teammate Darris Nichols, who was fouled and knocked down two free throws to secure the 82-78 win.
Re-energized, the Mountaineers went on to win 12 of their final 17 games during a memorable Elite Eight run that saw them knock off a Chris Paul-led Wake Forest team in a double-overtime classic. Many remember Gansey’s battle with Paul, but for Beilein, it started in Rhode Island.
“I will never ever forget Mike crawling on his hands and knees to get that ball,” Beilein said. “And I sense he’s done whatever he can to be successful just like that going forward.”
Following a professional basketball career overseas, Gansey scrapped his way up the Cleveland Cavaliers organization — from basketball operations seasonal assistant to becoming the team’s general manager in just over a decade. Now, he will be leading the 76ers’ front office.
On Friday, The Inquirer confirmed that the Sixers are set to hire Gansey as the team’s next president of basketball operations, replacing Daryl Morey after six seasons.
“That little suburban look that he has, don’t let that fool you. He’s competitive as hell.”
Beilen said he has a group chat filled with his former Mountaineers players. The text chain is usually the most active when someone has a life update or an accomplishment to share. So when one of its “main contributors” landed the top job with the Sixers, a flood of congratulatory messages rolled in.
Nichols knew it was a possibility before some of his teammates, having spoken to Gansey during his interview process with the Sixers. Two decades ago, Gansey was the upperclassman who let Nichols crash in his apartment for a whole summer while his dorm got sorted out. Now, Gansey and Nichols, who is the men’s basketball coach at La Salle, are set to play different roles in Philadelphia’s unique, multifaceted basketball ecosystem. Nichols believes his former teammate will bring a newfound edge to the Sixers’ front office.
“That little suburban look that he has, don’t let that fool you,” Nichols said with a laugh. “He’s competitive as hell.”
‘He’s still the same guy’
Gansey’s phone wasn’t buzzing Friday just from his group chat filled with old college buddies. He received hundreds of messages, but one he made sure to return was from the team bus driver at West Virginia.
“I spoke to him [Saturday], congratulating him on everything, and it kind of touched me,” said Arnold Edwards, who has been transporting West Virginia teams since 1999. “He said I was one of the phone calls that he was going to [return]. He said, ‘You know, I probably got 700 messages. But I want to call you back.’”
“Other guys on the team were just buck wild — they were cowboys. Mike was sort of the sheriff.”
Gansey developed a significant rapport with Edwards through his three years in Morgantown because, as Edwards puts it, “at some point in your career, you’re going to sit up there and you’re going to talk to the bus driver.” Edwards also got a unique vantage point to the Mountaineers’ run to the Elite Eight and the role Gansey played.
“If things were getting ready to get off the track, Mike would bring them back. Mike would calm the guys down,” said Edwards. “He’s always had a very high basketball IQ. Of course, he had his wild, crazy side, because we all do. But Mike controlled that. Other guys on the team were just buck wild — they were cowboys. Mike was sort of the sheriff.”
The two have maintained a strong relationship through the years. Anytime Gansey found himself near West Virginia’s campus — whether recruiting or just visiting — he gave Edwards a ring.
“Mike makes time for his friends,” said Edwards. “He’s still the same guy. Mike’s not the guy that changes.”
Gansey also kept a strong connection with his former Mountaineers teammate Patrick Beilein, John Beilein’s son, and the current coach of Mohawk Valley Community College in Utica, N.Y.
In 2003, Beilein hosted Gansey on his visit to West Virginia and a friendship blossomed after the forward transferred from St. Bonaventure. Gansey left the Bonnies after a university investigation into teammate John Terrell’s academic transcript led to the team’s disqualification from the Atlantic 10 Tournament and a publicized team boycott. During Gansey’s mandatory redshirt year, the two bonded over their stringent training regiments. The roommates would regularly wake up together at 5 a.m., just to find themselves back in the gym after sunset.
Gansey’s hard work with Beilein paid off when he hit the court. He averaged 14.4 points in his two seasons with the Mountaineers and was a major contributor to their tournament success. He excelled from behind the arc, shooting 42.9% on 5.3 three-point attempts per game during his senior campaign.
That season, he was named a finalist for the Oscar Robertson Award, the Naismith Trophy, and the John R. Wooden Award — all honoring the best player in college basketball. His stellar senior season was also enough to get the attention of professional scouts. Gansey signed a free-agent contract with the Miami Heat after going undrafted, but his NBA aspirations were short-lived.
Shortly after signing with Miami, Gansey was diagnosed with MRSA in a knee. The staph infection left him bedridden for two weeks, and it could have led to a leg amputation if it had been caught any later. The Heat released Gansey after he lost 30 pounds due to the infection. After rehabbing at his alma mater in Morgantown — and another bout with MRSA in his right ankle — Gansey was able to launch a professional career overseas.
The Beileins — John, Patrick, and Mark, a former Richmond football player and WVU grad — flew to Germany to watch Gansey compete.
“It was just such a joy to see him playing pro [in Germany]. He was so happy,” Patrick said. “We still stay in touch to this day. He texts me about my team here at Mohawk Valley — a community college. Not many guys would care about looking at the scores or your record. We just have a natural friendship.”
Not ‘too high or too low’
Gansey’s Mountaineers fraternity may have the best idea of how he will approach his new job with the Sixers.
“He’s a connector, man,” said John Beilein. “Without going over the top, his presence, his patience — they connect people. I mean, he just is able to work with everyone without demanding it. They just do it naturally because it’s part of his personality. You want to work hard with him, for him.”
“It’s not all analytics with him. He has a great feel for people, and people who are going to get better.”
Beilein did get a chance to work with his former player briefly. After 41 years as a college head coach and 12 total NCAA Tournament appearances — including five at West Virginia and 12 at Michigan — Beilein, the winningest coach in Wolverines history, was hired as the Cavaliers’ coach. Beilein was brought in to help Cleveland find an identity during a post-LeBron James rebuild, coaching a roster mixed of veterans left over from the team’s NBA Finals appearances and young players looking to prove themselves.
Gansey, at the time, was serving as the team’s assistant general manager. Despite the familiar face in the front office, Beilein’s tenure in Cleveland was short-lived. After just 54 games, it became evident his hard-nosed, demanding coaching style did not mesh with the Cavaliers or the modern NBA, so the two sides parted ways.
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“[Gansey] was helpful to me in just assimilating to a very, very different environment,” said Beilein. “To go from Michigan to the NBA, it’s extremely different — difficult and different. They wanted somebody to just create a great culture there while they’re going to lose 60 games for the next two years. As it turned out, I couldn’t do that. It just wasn’t in my DNA. …
“But Mike was very supportive through it all, and then he understood when I said, ‘I got to walk away. This is not healthy.’”
Beilein is not the only member of the Mountaineers’ Elite Eight team who has seen Gansey’s managerial style firsthand.
Before leading La Salle, Nichols served as the head coach at Radford and in assistant roles at Florida, Louisiana Tech, Wofford, and Northern Kentucky. Gansey, first evaluating talent for Cleveland’s G League affiliate and later the Cavaliers, visited some of Nichols’ practices. At some of these stops, Nichols saw the lengths his former teammate would go to gain a comprehensive picture of a player.
“It’s not all analytics with him,” said Nichols. “He has a great feel for people, and people who are going to get better. He’ll come to your practice, and he’ll talk to everybody. He’s been to my practice at Radford, he’s been to my practices at Florida. He’ll talk to the managers, he’ll talk to staff, he’ll talk to everybody to get the information that he needs to determine if this is who we want in our organization.”
“He never gets too high and he’ll never get too low, and he’ll never show it ... I think that’s what makes him the most equipped.”
Gansey has a lot of evaluating to do.
He enters a difficult situation from a roster-building perspective. The Sixers boast an All-NBA guard in Tyrese Maxey and a promising rising star in VJ Edgecombe, but question marks surround aging star Joel Embiid, who has played in just 96 games since his MVP season three years ago. The current temperature of Sixers fans does not make the job any easier. Many are spurned by the front office’s decision to trade young guard Jared McCain and the team’s second-round series loss to the New York Knicks.
Gansey’s West Virginia roommate is confident he has the right demeanor for the position — and the city.
“He never gets too high and he’ll never get too low, and he’ll never show it,” said Patrick Beilein. “I think that’s the perfect situation for him, obviously, with the Philly fans. The emotions are high on any sport that’s professionally played there. I think that’s what makes him the most equipped. He has a plan, he’ll have a plan.
“He knows what he’s aiming for. He never gets too high or too low as a person. I saw that as a player, and then obviously with the Cavs. That’s what makes him so equipped, he’s staying in the present and understands it’s a process.”