Stefanski out with Sixers
General manager Ed Stefanski has been relieved on his duties, the new Sixers owners announced in their introductory press conference.
Stefanski out with Sixers
General manager Ed Stefanski has been relieved of his duties, the new Sixers owners announced in their introductory press conference.
Rod Thorn will remain as team president and will be the “captain of the ship,” according to majority owner Josh Harris.
“We were lucky enough when we bought the team to have two fantastic people doing one job,” Harris said. “We are going to stay with Rod. There are no current plans to replace Ed.”
Speculation had been that Jason Levien, a former NBA player agent and executive with the Sacramento Kings, would be involved in player personnel. Levien is one of the minority owners.
Asked about ownership’s involvement in player personnel, Harris said, “You can be assured that we are interested owners. We will be very focused, with lots of debate about what we do with players. At the end of the day, Rod is the captain of that ship. He will run that part of our organization. We will speak with you through one voice, Rod and Doug [Collins] voice when it comes to players.”
Stefanski has been a frontrunner for the general manager job with the Toronto Raptors. A source said late last week that those talks were moving forward, although reports have said that those talks have hit a snag.
Stefanski was hired as the Sixers president and general manager in 2007 after having served as the GM of the New Jersey Nets. His role was reduced to general manager when Thorn was hired before last season.
Thank god, horrible job Ed, wish it were three years ago. At least the new owners know their head from their butthole.
Thorn now in spotlight. Hasn't done a thing except collect paychecks.— pedge- I'm going to start paying attention to the Sixers again.— PJH
- So winning a title in NJ doesn't qualify? What did you want him to do in one regular season and a locked out off season exactly?
- Thorn never won any titles with the Nets. They lost in the finals. That was also in the distant past in NBA terms. — JonKap
- Glad Thorn is staying and so glad they didn't give Ed Stanfanski another life with this organization. They cut the cord, professionally, but quickly with him.— 76er
- Thorn is a good basketball man. Lets hope he has the guts to pull off a major move on iggy which is what we so badly need right now. BRING US MONTA ELLIS. We have enough defense we just need a killer scorer. With a great coach like DC and a hard worker like ET(he is gonna be a stud). We will be back on the right track. I know the draft pick was not sexy but this guy will be a very solid 10 and 10 guy from the 5 spot mark my word.— eaglessuperfan
- He'll have plenty of time to get acclimated with the lockout. Maybe we'll have basketball at this time next year.— dlscholt
- next up..uniforms...back to the early 80s version--get our mojo back..dump iguodala--and sign warren coolidge and morris thorp--— Shemp Howard
- The Sixers are already a better team without Stiffanski. This couldn't happen soon enough. There probably won't even be an NBA season, but minus "the Stiff", we are vastly improved.— younged
- Stefanski's fatal mistake was hiring his buddy Eddie Jordan as coach. What a terrible hire.— zeke128
- ...bush
- ...hire him now!
- Too bad he wasn't replaced BEFORE this year's draft!— makrom
What the hell is an "NBA" anyway? Does that even exist, or is it just made up? I can't find their games anywhere.
Bob Cooney has been at the Daily News for more than 20 years, working in the sports department for the past 15. This is his third season on the Sixers beat. He has covered just about everything, but mostly college basketball, where he was the La Salle beat writer for six seasons. E-mail Bob at cooneyb@phillynews.com and follow him on Twitter.
