Brand will report to the ownership group, and collaborate with coach Brett Brown on decisionsNBAE/GETTY IMAGES
Elton Brand was formally introduced as the 76ers' new GM on Thursday, and team co-Managing Partner Josh Harris said that Brand "will be partners with head coach Brett Brown" and that the team "will not hire a president of basketball operations," according to Keith Pompey of the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER. Harris said that Brand and Brown "will report to him and the team's ownership group," and that he "expects the two will collaborate often." Harris said that Brown is the team's "on-the-court voice" while Brand is the "off-the-court voice." But he added Brand "will have kind of the loudest voice off the court, and final decision-making authority subject to ownership." Pompey notes there was a "sense around the league that the Sixers would hire from within despite interviewing outside candidates." Sources said that the 76ers "wanted their next GM to be someone who will be the public face and win over fans." That description "fits the well-respected Brand." The 76ers' previous two GMs, Bryan Colangelo and Sam Hinkie, "rarely made themselves available to the media," but Brand "plans to stop that trend" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 9/21). ESPN.com's Kevin Arnovitz cited sources as saying that tapping an existing member of the management team was "among the major factors in Brand's selection." The 76ers have "devoted considerable resources in recent years to building systems and infrastructure," so an in-house candidate like Brand "appealed to ownership and Brown" (ESPN.com, 9/20).
A NEW PROCESS: In Philadelphia, David Murphy notes Harris overlooked Brand's "scant front-office experience to give him the final say in personnel decisions." Harris, in explaining the decision to choose Brand "over many candidates who possessed longer front-office track records," portrayed Brand as a "man who has the political and personal capital necessary to land the sort of free-agent talent" that the team could not sign this offseason. Rather than "prioritizing a leader who has a track record of outside-the-box roster management and a proven ability to recognize value where other teams either do not think or do not need to look, the Sixers sound as if they settled on the person who gave them the best chance to execute their preferred course of action" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 9/21).
