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Colangelo: 'When I Believe Something It'll Be Heard'

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- Jerry Colangelo is as decorated as it gets when it comes to NBA executives.

At 76-years-old, the current Chairman of USA basketball and former owner of the Phoenix Suns, has over four decades of NBA experience. In 1968, before Colangelo turned 30, he became the general manager of the Suns and the youngest GM in professional sports.

Nearly 50 years later, Colangelo was named the new Chairman of the Philadelphia 76ers, a team amid a polarizing rebuilding process primarily orchestrated by their young general manager Sam Hinkie.

So exactly how influential will Colangelo be when it comes to personnel decisions?

"I think I'm being brought here to have a big voice in the room and we're gonna do this on a collaborative basis," Colangelo told Angelo Cataldi and the 94WIP Morning Show on Tuesday. "You have ownership that makes the final, final call right? Because they write the check. Number two, you have a young guy that we just described in Sam Hinkie and then you have me, who has a lot of experience because I've done all of this, a few times. So you now have another voice."

Listen: Jerry Colangelo on the 94WIP Morning Show

 

Colangelo admits he is not used to a collaborative effort in the front-office and ultimately his voice will be heard.

"I've always made all the decisions and I didn't have a collaborative circumstance to deal with and I lived and died with my own decisions," Colangelo said. "And so this is a little different for me, but you should know, I will speak my peace and when I believe in something it'll be heard.

At this stage in his career, Colangelo did not join the Sixers to be "overruled by a bunch of people that never won anything," as Cataldi put it.

"I would never do it," said Colangelo. "I would never do that."

 

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