Jerry Colangelo Named Sixers Chairman Of Basketball Operations
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- On Monday, the Sixers held a press conference featuring Owner Joshua Harris, General Manager Sam Hinkie and the team's new Chairman of Basketball Operations, Jerry Colangelo.
"We believe we are entering the next phase of our process," said Harris as he introduced Colangelo who now becomes the most experienced and well respected member of the Sixers' brass.
Harris made it clear that Colangelo's presence does not impact the role of Hinkie who will remain in the role of General Manager.
"I'm intrigued quite honestly," Colangelo said about joining this young Sixers organization in the middle of a major rebuild. He called Hinkie one of the smartest young minds in the NBA and expressed his excitement for the opportunity to be his mentor.
"I think I can offer a lot of mentoring to Sam," Colangelo said.
GALLERY: Sixers Introduce Jerry Colangelo
Colangelo, 76, explained that the opportunity arose simply from Joshua Harris reaching out to him and expressing a want to bring him into the organization to take the Sixers to the next level.
Colangelo was the youngest GM in professional sports when he was hired by the Phoenix Suns in 1969. He touched on his experience tearing down and rebuilding the Suns four times while he was there. That experience is something the Sixers will lean on as the try to see this rebuild through to the end.
In 2004, Colangelo was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame and was named NBA Executive of the Year four times while with the Suns.
Colangelo also has relationships with some of the best basketball players in the world after being named the Managing Director and Chairman of USA Basketball in 2005. Harris touched on that and talked about how that fact could help Colangelo lure top free agents to Philadelphia.
