The Philadelphia 76ers have been operating for more than a month without a full-time general manager. Head coach Brett Brown has been in charge of basketball operations ever since Bryan Colangelo was fired for a burner Twitter account scandal, and in the meantime, the team has gone forward without someone getting to focus all their time and energy on steering the ship.
According to Marc Stein of the New York Times, the Sixers tried to make one hell of a move to fill their front office vacancy. Stein tweeted that Philadelphia’s brass tried to hire longtime Rockets general manager Daryl Morey away from Houston, only to walk away empty handed.
The Philadelphia 76ers have been rebuffed in their attempt to hire away Houston's Daryl Morey to take over as their new general manager, @NYTSports has learned
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 16, 2018
This is, obviously, an incredibly ambitious attempt by the Sixers to try and get one of the game’s best general managers to take over their vacancy. Morey has been at the helm in Houston since 2007, and his “Moreyball” approach to the game that favors threes and shots at the rim over midrange jumpers has influenced much of the league.
For a Sixers team that practices with a four-point line as a way to free up space for Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, it makes sense that Morey would be an appealing option. Additionally, Brown has said the Sixers are “star hunting,” and Morey is famous for his desire to acquire stars at almost any cost. It stands to reason that Philadelphia would have hoped its war chest of assets was so bountiful as to pique Morey’s interest.
There is an irony in all of this, as the team’s general manager before Colangelo, Sam Hinkie, was a well-documented Morey disciple. But still, the Sixers’ desire to add stars to their organization appears to go far beyond the players who take the floor.
