Bob Myers’ Sixers hire must fix a culture problem

Bob Myers’ message after Daryl Morey’s firing has left the Sixers needing more than roster tinkering: they need a real shift in power, trust, and culture inside the front office.

When Bob Myers walked into the May 14 news conference after Daryl Morey’s firing, one small misstep landed with a thud: he spoke like the longtime, respected executive he has always been, without making clear he wouldn’t be making decisions day to day.

That kind of nuance matters in an organization that has lived. for decades. with a credibility crisis and a front office that has taken on “a thousand faces.” From the moment in July 2001 when Pat Croce. the Sixers team president. tried and failed to run a power play on Ed Snider—Croce wanted to be Comcast Spectacor’s CEO. and Snider patted him on the head and told him to run along—the franchise has struggled to project a stable identity in basketball operations.

Now Myers has to help build that stability for real, not just in public.

The Sixers will have to hire an executive—president of basketball operations. director of player personnel. or whatever title comes next—someone who can actually shape the day-to-day decisions that have been missing. And Myers’ command of the room. the way he framed the future. fed a false notion that the new hire would be a powerless underling and that Myers would be alone in remaking the roster.

This is not a one-man job. It’s a two-man job, and the team’s first priority has to be something they have ignored for too long: culture.

The stakes are visible in the Sixers’ history of resets that never seem to land. The Sixers fired Daryl Morey; nothing will change. The Sixers could’ve fired Nick Nurse; nothing would’ve changed. The Sixers fired Brett Brown and Doc Rivers; they hired Bryan Colangelo. Sam Hinkie walked away before they fired him. Nothing changed. Nothing will.

The point isn’t that talent evaluations don’t matter. It’s that the organization keeps repeating moves without fixing what sits underneath them.

Myers, by all accounts, is in a position to set the tone. He is the president of Harris-Blitzer’s sports division and also the Sixers’ acting president. In a league where reputations travel fast, he’s also a rare figure whom everyone in the NBA takes seriously.

There’s a practical ceiling on who can be brought in. The Sixers were denied permission to speak to Onsi Saleh. the Atlanta Hawks’ general manager. a rising executive who worked under Myers with the Golden State Warriors. Josh Harris still has Morey and general manager Elton Brand on the payroll. and Myers. according to a source with knowledge of the details. makes more than the two of them combined. That means Harris is unlikely to bring someone close to Myers in stature or compensation.

But attractive candidates still exist. Mike Gansey of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Mike Lloyd of the Minnesota Timberwolves. and Jameer Nelson from inside the organization are among the names mentioned. The standard for any hire should be clear: stop chasing shortcuts and formulas. and pinpoint the best people to hire and promote.

The Sixers’ pattern since Harris took over has been one gambit after another—trading too much for Andrew Bynum; letting Sam Hinkie embark on “The Process”; selling out Hinkie at the behest of the league office; settling for Bryan Colangelo; shifting from “star-chasing” to “bully ball”; moving from Ben Simmons to James Harden to Paul George. The cycle has left the franchise adrift through the ownership tenure.

Even with Daryl Morey. whose analytical mind showed brilliance for stretches of his six-year tenure. there was always a fault line. Morey’s interpersonal skills were among his weaknesses. A leader can hold himself on an island. resolute that he has the answers—and for a time. that can work. But eventually morale among the people working for him starts to decay.

Myers and Morey, as described here, like each other, but they see the world differently. During Myers’ near-decade run in Golden State—a period of four championships and six Finals appearances in eight years—his strength wasn’t in raw X’s-and-O’s or the mythology of a single genius decision-maker. It was in managing egos and personalities: Joe Lacob as owner; Jerry West as a powerful consultant; Kevin Durant and Draymond Green. future Hall of Famers who demanded either finesse or a firm hand. and someone who knew when to use each.

Those skills, the thinking goes, should translate.

Despite the impression created in that May 14 news conference. Myers doesn’t have to—and doesn’t want to—relocate his family to Philadelphia and assume total control of basketball operations. He doesn’t have to pull the trigger on every trade and every 10-day contract. What he can do is tell tough truths to Joel Embiid. to George. and to anyone else who might fall back into the old pattern of kowtowing too often to their biggest names and most important players.

He can also center the franchise around what’s already there. Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe are described as two high-character, centerpiece-quality talents, and exhausting every possible resource and option to maximize them has to be the franchise’s highest priority.

What Myers can do next is build the internal atmosphere that keeps everyone working from the same playbook. Hire a player-personnel chief who fosters collaboration and offers stability and good sense. Make the final calls on the most important moves. Supplant the “cringy. mealy-mouthed. notes-shuffling” Harris as the face of ownership—at least in how the business of basketball is presented.

Those measures might not sound dramatic in isolation. But in the Sixers’ current condition, with the likelihood that Embiid and George are stuck in place and with the “albatross contracts” that Harris was happy to hand out, there isn’t an escape hatch. This isn’t the moment for cosmetic change.

No one wants another multiyear rebuild. No one wants another “Process.” Bob Myers doesn’t have to run the Sixers himself, but he does have to find a partner who can help change both the perception and the reality of a franchise that has been lost for a long time.

It’s the first step on a hard road.

Bob Myers Philadelphia 76ers Daryl Morey Harris-Blitzer Elton Brand Onsi Saleh Mike Gansey Mike Lloyd Jameer Nelson Joel Embiid Paul George Tyrese Maxey VJ Edgecombe front office culture