How will Josh Harris' deal with Devils affect Sixers, Scott O'Neill?

Yesterday at the Sixers media conference to introduce Brett Brown as their new head coach, I debated with 6ABC sports reporter Jeff Skversky about Sixers owner Joshua Harris purchasing the New Jersey Devils.

I argued that it was no big deal because the NBA and NHL are different sports leagues and despite the Flyers rivalry with the Devils it would have no bearing on the Sixers.

Sversky said it was bad form for the owner of a Philadelphia team to purchase a team from a rival city. It was a breach of Harris' trust with Philadelphia fans and just looked bad.

Considering that the core base of NBA and NHL fans in this city don't have much crossover, I doubt the Sixers will lose many ticket sales because Harris now owns the Devils.

I can, however, envision a few "Let's Go Flyers" chants breaking out at a Sixers game when Harris is in the building - especially since he just made a front office move for the Devils that could add some hiccups to the Sixers' day-to-day operations.

Sixers Chief Executive Officer Scott O'Neil will also now have the same job with the Devils.

It was just a little more than a month ago that O'Neil, a Villanova graduate who resigned as President of Madison Square Garden, was given the responsibility for "overseeing every aspect of the team's business operation."

Now he is also tasked with doing the same thing for the Devils.

Running the business operations for two sports franchises is a lot of work for one guy. You can't help but wonder who will get the short end during a long working day.

Read the rest of John Smallwood's story on PhillyDailyNews.com.

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