In 2013, the 76ers hired Sam Hinkie as general manager and president of basketball operations.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The 76ers currently play very good basketball, and we don't. However, we are still only one win behind them. If we continue to improve, we should be on the top of our division at the end of the regular season.
It's easy to be a spokesman and ambassador for a great organization like the NBA. I thank Commissioner David Stern for putting that trust in me to serve the NBA around the globe.
In the NBA, you're taking a bunch of different talents, and you're managing them. You have to give them a system; you have to give them a belief. That's why coaches like Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich are so great: because they gave the team confidence in the system and in their ability to execute night in and night out.
Everybody in the NBA works on their game. I just tried to follow that lead when I was in high school, college - and now.
In 1979, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird entered the league. I remember that. Soon after this, the story began to be repeated ad nauseam: the NBA, a tottering mess in the seventies, was saved in the eighties by these two.
The 76ers hold a special place in my heart and I am intrigued by the opportunity to return to Philadelphia, where I was part of a rebuilding program, joining the team the year after it went 9-73 and going to the NBA Finals just four years later.
Pat Riley, Dave Checketts and Ernie Grunfeld - they brought the Knicks back to the glory days. It started with Rick Pitino. We took our first step with him, making the playoffs. When Pat came in we just kicked the door open.
Michael Jordan was a tremendous basketball player.
This is a tremendous opportunity to be named head coach of the Brooklyn Nets, and it's a role I have been studying for over the course of my playing days.
What is there about basketball that makes Larry Bird or Lenny Wilkens want to coach after their playing careers are done?