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Sneak peek: New 76ers owner Joshua Harris

First, thanks to everyone who either emailed or Tweeted a question about the 76ers. As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, we're going to do our best to keep things relevant here on Deep Sixer even if the NBA lockout is making it difficult. If you want to follow on Twitter, I'm closing in on 5,000 followers, so you can help in that quest by following here: Deep Sixer. The most popular question asked was about Sixers' guard-forward Evan Turner. Some seemed to have missed this earlier post -- Turner working with Herb Magee -- although some just wanted more, continuing info about the team's No. 2 draft pick in 2010. Check out that post if you missed it, but we'll try to track down ET in the next week or so and get an even more in-depth update on his summer. Also, Sixers point guard Jrue Holiday is back in Philadelphia today.

In Sunday's edition of the Inquirer, we'll be running a long profile of Joshua Harris, who leads the investment group whose purchase of the Sixers is pending approval by the NBA's Board of Governors. Harris declined interview through a spokesman, but we caught up with a number of his long-time friends and also a few former classmates from either Penn's Wharton School or Harvard Business School.

Here are a few quotes; the full story will run on Sunday.

"I think his ease and casualness in the way he does things," said long-time friend Bippy Siegal of Raycliff Investments. "What I mean is, you'll be sitting and discussing a topic with him and he'll say, 'I don't quite understand that.' And then in five minutes, not only does he understand it, he knows more about it than you did and you studied it for 10 years. It's kind of a screwed-up skill to have. And it kind of bums me out."

...

"Is this a toy? No. There's just no way," said Scott Stewart, who attended HBS with Harris. "I can't see him treating this as a toy. He's a serious businessman and the way to be successful in this case in the NBA is to win NBA Championships. It's a very definitive and tangible goal. His seriousness and again his track record of success would lead you to believe that that's his ambition with the team: not only to win one, but win multiple."

...

"We were big fans," said Tony Ignaczak, who attended Wharton undergrad with Harris from 1982-86. "I don't specifically remember attending Sixers games, because tickets were expensive and as students we didn't have a lot of money, but we were clearly Philadelphia sports fans and that was a great era for Philadelphia basketball."

...

Again, any Sixers questions you want addressed in the coming weeks, please email me at kfagan@phillynews.com or on Twitter @deepsixer3.

--Kate

Each week, Kate will check in from the road and answer fan questions about the Sixers. Click here to ask Kate a question or e-mail her at kfagan@phillynews.com.