Fansided

Jerry Colangelo and the Sixers are headed for a long overdue breakup

By Bryan Toporek

PHILADELPHIA, PA - DECEMBER 7: Jerry Colangelo speaks to the media after being named special advisor to managing general partner and chairman of basketball operations for the Philadelphia 76ers on December 7, 2015 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - DECEMBER 7: Jerry Colangelo speaks to the media after being named special advisor to managing general partner and chairman of basketball operations for the Philadelphia 76ers on December 7, 2015 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /
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Jerry Colangelo’s tenure as the Philadelphia 76ers’ special adviser is reportedly coming to an end in a few months’ time.

After his son was forced to resign as the Philadelphia 76ers’ general manager in the wake of an embarrassing burner Twitter scandal involving his wife, Jerry Colangelo reportedly will soon follow him out the door.

As Tim Bontemps of the Washington Post first reported Monday — and ESPN.com later confirmed  —Colangelo’s contract as special adviser to the Sixers’ managing general partner expires at the end of 2018 and will not be renewed.

“It is an awkward ending to what was one of the stranger stories in recent NBA memory,” Bontemps wrote.

Colangelo’s three-year tenure with the Sixers was marred with controversy from the get-go. According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, NBA owners had “been lobbying the league’s front office to step in with regard to the direction” of the Sixers “since the summer of 2014,” as then-general manager Sam Hinkie embarked upon an unprecedented multiyear teardown.

“It was that effort that helped lead to the hiring” of Colangelo, according to Windhorst, as NBA Commission Adam Silver helped broker the partnership between him and Sixers managing owner Joshua Harris.

Only four months after Colangelo’s arrival, Hinkie resigned unexpectedly, telling the Sixers’ ownership group: “Given all the changes to our organization, I no longer have the confidence that I can make good decisions on behalf of investors in the Sixers—you. So I should step down. And I have.”

As Adrian Wojnarowski reported for Yahoo Sports at the time, Colangelo “wanted two things: to turn Hinkie into a glorified director of analytics; or run him out completely.” Colangelo reportedly thought Hinkie lacked “the necessary people skills to run an organization,” according to Wojnarowski, so he “convinced ownership that it needed a more basketball-savvy executive with better interpersonal skills to join Hinkie; or even simply to overtake him.”

That coup d’etat led to Jerry’s son, Bryan, taking over for Hinkie only days after his resignation. Bryan “was beyond reluctant” to accept the job, according to Wojnarowski, as his tenure was immediately met with charges of nepotism and fierce backlash from the pro-Hinkie “Process” supporters.

Two years later, one such writer got the ball rolling on the Twitter investigation that led to Bryan Colangelo’s demise.

As the Sixers waded through that PR debacle, Jerry reportedly threatened “to interfere with club relationships around the league,” according to Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice. “The Sixers, aware of Colangelo’s influence around the league and his connection to numerous agents and power brokers after decades of work in basketball, opted to move forward carefully in what team sources described as a chaotic, uncertain environment,” Neubeck reported.

Assuming Neubeck’s report is true, the Sixers could not in good conscience have renewed Jerry’s contract when it expires at the end of the year. At this point, a clean break from the Colangelo family was their only realistic option.

Besides, rival NBA owners can no longer be upset with the direction of the team. Whereas the Sixers were shamelessly tanking upon Colangelo’s arrival in December 2015, they’re fresh off a 52-win campaign and a second-round playoff berth. So long as Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons remain upright, they appear poised to challenge the Boston Celtics for Eastern Conference supremacy for years to come.

The Sixers still must fill the vacancy in their front office, as head coach Brett Brown has been serving as the interim general manager as the organization looks for Bryan Colangelo’s permanent replacement. They attempted to pry reigning Executive of the Year Daryl Morey from the Houston Rockets but were rebuffed, according to Marc Stein of the New York Times, and there hasn’t been much news on that front since.

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With the offseason largely settling into a sleepy August lull, the Sixers are willing to be patient as they search for a new general manager. Given their assets and future cap space, they know how attractive the opening is, so they don’t seem willing to settle for anything less than their ideal candidate.

As their search continues, it appears as though Jerry Colangelo’s once-outsized influence over the organization will not factor in this time around. Instead, he’ll be a lame

snake

duck as the final few months of his contract run out.