{"id":880902,"date":"2026-10-13T14:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T14:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/880902\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T14:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T14:18:10","slug":"can-mike-gansey-make-the-76ers-superteam-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/880902\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Mike Gansey Make the 76ers\u2019 Superteam Work?"},"content":{"rendered":"

NBA<\/a>NBA<\/a>He was still learning everyone\u2019s names. Then he landed Jaylen Brown and LeBron. Now Mike Gansey faces an even bigger challenge: making it all work.\"\"Getty Images\/Ringer illustration\"\"<\/a>By Yaron Weitzman<\/a>Oct. 13, 12:20 pm UTC \u2022 10 min<\/p>\n

The best way to understand how the Philadelphia 76ers\u2019 new boss plans to run the team is through a story that has nothing to do with them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the summer of 2024, Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell launched a basketball camp in conjunction with Adidas. They called it \u201cSpida Elite.\u201d The idea was to coach and mentor high school guards. It has since become an annual event, and one Mitchell has made clear he cares deeply about. This year\u2019s camp took place in Los Angeles in August, but in 2024 it was at the end of June. The last days before free agency, a busy time for NBA executives.<\/p>\n

Yet one GM (or, if we\u2019re using official terms, president of basketball operations) made the time to swing through the gym. It wasn\u2019t that Mike Gansey didn\u2019t have anything better to do. He was less than a month into his new job with the Sixers and, we know now, in the midst of both executing a trade for Jaylen Brown<\/a> and recruiting LeBron James<\/a>. That he was no longer an executive with the Cavaliers, where he\u2019d spent the previous 15 years, meant he had no professional obligation to be there, either.<\/p>\n

But none of that mattered to Gansey. What did matter to him was how much the camp meant to Mitchell, someone he had grown close with. And so for Gansey, it wasn\u2019t a question of whether he could attend but rather how. That, people who know him well say, is his default setting.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody likes Mike Gansey,\u201d said an NBA agent who also attended Mitchell\u2019s camp. \u201cAnd stories like that are why.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Jesse D. Garrabrant\/NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ask people around the NBA about Gansey\u2014the man who just pulled off what might be the most audacious offseason the league has ever seen from a first-time lead executive\u2014and the initial responses make it seem like everyone is reading off a script. \u201cI love Mike Gansey,\u201d said Brooklyn Nets head coach Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez, a friend of Gansey\u2019s from their time together in Cleveland. Six other NBA insiders I spoke with for this story, a mix of executives, coaches, and scouts, none of whom had ever worked with Gansey, used that exact same phrase. So did multiple former colleagues.<\/p>\n

Gansey, these people say, is a lot of things. A sharp scout. An empathetic boss. A fun hang. But most of all, he\u2019s a culture guy. \u201cI want fountains, not drains,\u201d Gansey said repeatedly during his introductory Sixers press conference in June, a phrase he\u2019d adopted from Cavs president Koby Altman. It\u2019s not the type of rhetoric anyone had ever heard from the executive who previously sat in Gansey\u2019s chair, which makes the contrast all the more stark. That\u2019s not to say that Gansey\u2019s approach is better than the more data-driven, dispassionate way in which Daryl Morey ran the Sixers<\/a>; Morey, after all, has done plenty of winning himself. But it is, without a doubt, different.<\/p>\n

In other words: It\u2019s a new era in Philly, and not just because the Sixers now employ the league\u2019s biggest star and most ambitious superteam. Can Gansey\u2019s temperament help shepherd the suddenly alpha-heavy Sixers (sorry, Jaylen<\/a>) through the bumps sure to arise this season? Or is the team the sort of thing destined to crumble under the pressure that comes with all the stars? The answer could determine whether this overnight spectacle is remembered with the likes of the Kevin Garnett\u2013Paul Pierce\u2013Ray Allen Big Three or buried in a graveyard alongside all those iterations of the Brooklyn Nets and the many other failed collections of big names.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think building, managing, and maintaining relationships is very important in my position,\u201d Gansey told The Ringer. \u201cWith the star power we have, I want to build those relationships and try to help them, and help everyone on the roster get where we want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gansey\u2019s front office career began in 2011, after his own playing career fizzled out. A former high school star\u2014he finished second in the 2001 Ohio Mr. Basketball voting; the winner was a sophomore from Akron whom you might have heard of<\/a>\u2014he spent two years playing for St. Bonaventure before transferring to West Virginia and becoming a key wing for head coach John Beilein (Gansey scored 29 points in a double-overtime win over Chris Paul and Wake Forest in the 2005 NCAA tournament<\/a>). To basketball fans, he became known for both his all-around game and the baggy T-shirt he wore underneath his uniform. Inside the West Virginia locker room, though, he was beloved for his work ethic and for being the guy to call whenever a teammate was in need, like when Darris Nichols had an issue with his on-campus apartment and, along with his roommate, needed a place to stay.<\/p>\n

\u201cGansey gave us his room,\u201d Nichols said. \u201cThe dude had just taken the school to the Elite Eight the year before, and he\u2019s putting himself out for some underclassmen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Getty Images<\/p>\n

Gansey went undrafted in 2006. He signed with the Miami Heat as a free agent but contracted MRSA that summer. He was bedridden for two weeks and lost 30 pounds. The Heat released him. He traveled the globe to chase his NBA dreams\u2014overseas in Italy and Germany, stateside in Idaho and Erie, Pennsylvania\u2014but in 2011, he took a job in the front office of his hometown Cavaliers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A quick learner, Gansey was promoted the next year to director of G League operations. \u201cHe had a knack for getting high-IQ, good culture guys,\u201d said Steve Hetzel, head coach of the Canton Charge, the Cavs\u2019 affiliate, for the 2013-14 season. \u201cThere were times where we passed on guys in the player pool who we didn\u2019t think were cultural fits with what we were trying to put together.\u201d Gansey climbed the ladder fast, and in the summer of 2017\u2014before LeBron\u2019s last season with the team\u2014the Cavaliers promoted him to assistant GM.<\/p>\n

Gansey thrived in the role. \u201cHe was a huge part of building the great culture that we put together after LeBron left,\u201d said a former Cavs colleague. He was a road dog who, somehow, between his kids\u2019 soccer and basketball obligations, seemed to watch every game at every level from every country, all while staying close with colleagues back home. \u201cHe knew intricate details about every person in the building,\u201d Altman said. \u201cIf your college football team lost on Saturday, you\u2019re going to hear about it from Gansey on Monday. He remembers personal details about people in a way that shows he cares.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gansey\u2019s playing career earned him respect in the locker room. His friendships and popularity across the league turned him into a magnet for intel. Rival coaches and scouts trust him. So do agents. In fact, the Cavs\u2019 February trade for James Harden<\/a> was the direct result of back-channel talks between Gansey, who by then was Cleveland\u2019s no. 2 to Altman in the front office, and Harden\u2019s agents, according to a league source.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In April, Gansey was among the group of executives who interviewed for the top job with the Chicago Bulls. About a month later, Sixers owner Josh Harris fired Morey, creating another intriguing opening. He tasked Bob Myers, the former Golden State Warriors GM who now serves as president of Harris\u2019s sports empire, with finding a replacement. Myers made calls throughout the league. \u201cI asked a lot of people,\u201d Myers told reporters in June. He didn\u2019t know Gansey beforehand, but many of his former Warriors colleagues did. Myers then called Altman. \u201cThe first question he asked me was \u2018Why Mike Gansey?\u2019\u201d Altman said. \u201cThe first thing I said is \u2018You\u2019re going to love him, he\u2019s a basketball guy.\u2019 And I think that resonated with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gansey and Myers hit it off. \u201cThey realized they have a lot of similarities and approach things in similar ways,\u201d said someone close to Gansey. Listen to Myers hold court, and you can hear why. \u201cGetting to know a player, really trying to get to know them, you develop a trust,\u201d he told Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady on their Cousins podcast<\/a> in August. \u201cHow do I convince you \u2026 we\u2019re here to win? And that requires now\u2014and maybe more so now\u2014every day that constant discussion, environment, and culture that is really hard to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting all his players on the same page might be harder for Gansey than he originally thought. He had pitched Myers and Harris on a long-term vision: Ride out the final two seasons of Paul George\u2019s bloated contract and the final three of Joel Embiid\u2019s while using the assets Morey left behind to supplement the core of Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe. Then the opportunity to trade for Brown fell out of the sky.<\/p>\n

\u201cI showed up, and I\u2019m trying to meet and learn people in the building, just putting a name to a face, and on top of that it\u2019s the busiest time,\u201d Gansey said. \u201cSo while all that\u2019s happening, I\u2019m trying to present stuff to Josh [Harris], and I\u2019m new, and there\u2019s this opportunity to make a big splash with a big trade for Jaylen Brown that could obviously change our organization.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Did he know at the time how much would change for the Sixers if he did, indeed, pull the trigger on the Brown deal? \u201cI think with the LeBron thing, I didn\u2019t know how it was gonna go,\u201d Gansey added in August. \u201cI thought after Jaylen, we had a better chance.\u201d LeBron has made it clear that Sixers players\u2014most notably Maxey, a fellow Klutch client\u2014were the ones leading the recruiting, but Gansey jumping into the Brown mix put the Sixers in position to pounce.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s just crazy in this NBA, you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Gansey told reporters in August. “I’m just going to pick up the phone, I’m going to try to get involved in everything I possibly can and see what’s out there and be aggressive and creative.”<\/p>\n

In less than a month, Gansey had added both a living legend and a still-in-his-prime former Finals MVP to the Sixers\u2019 roster, and he\u2019d found a taker for the two years and $111 million left on Paul George\u2019s contract. All it cost was a few future draft picks and a minimum contract slot. Both the Celtics trade and the LeBron signing might have been relatively easy calls, but they still meant that a team that was coming off an embarrassing second-round sweep and thought to be dead would now be entering the season with massive expectations. Seemingly overnight, Gansey\u2019s job had changed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was an unprecedented burst of dealmaking for someone new to the seat. Most first-time hires tear things down while preaching the importance of patience. They toss around terms like “optionality.\u201d Gansey\u2019s former colleagues say that he believes in all those things. \u201cBut we talked all the time about thinking big and then landing the plane,” Altman said. \u201cMike was able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thus far, Gansey\u2019s playbook for navigating his new reality has been simple: Learn as much as he can from wherever he can, whether in his daily conversations with Myers (\u201cHe\u2019s been a tremendous resource for me,\u201d he said. \u201cSomeone I\u2019ve found myself reaching out to.\u201d) or by meeting with his counterparts at the other Harris-owned teams, Adam Peters of the Washington Commanders and Sunny Mehta of the New Jersey Devils. He inherited most of his staff (the only major changes to the front office were the hiring of former Denver Nuggets assistant general manager Tommy Balcetis and the departure of Fan-Hal Koung, an assistant general manager who worked closely with Morey and recently left for the Oklahoma City Thunder) but has made a point of emphasizing collaboration. And he\u2019s started working the locker room as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk a lot,\u201d Edgecombe said. \u201cHe\u2019s around all the time. I love it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now that the roster is in place, could Gansey\u2019s management style prove to be the difference for a combustible locker room? After all, barely halfway through the preseason, LeBron was already refuting reports<\/a> while Embiid lamented the need to comment on \u201coutside noise.\u201d<\/a> And that was all in reaction to a throwaway story told on another city\u2019s station (New York City\u2019s MSG Network) by the beloved and anodyne voice of the NBA (Mike Breen). What happens when someone, somewhere throws some actual heat? Whether it\u2019s Rich Paul<\/a>, Stephen A. Smith, or a player\u2019s close friend over dinner after a game? Sixers players repeatedly used the word “sacrifice” when speaking with reporters during training camp. What happens if one player thinks he\u2019s sacrificing more than the rest?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gansey knows that being the boss will make all of this harder, that people look at you in a different way when you\u2019re the one in charge of their future. He also knows he hasn\u2019t been truly tested yet, whether by taking a call from a frustrated owner, seeing fans blame him for a losing streak, or having to replace a player in the rotation with whom he\u2019s close. \u201cI\u2019ll always try to be as transparent with people as I can and do my best to make sure we\u2019re on the same page,\u201d Gansey said, \u201cbut at the end of the day, this is a business, and the players know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until then, he said, he\u2019ll just keep doing what he does. \u201cI think molding an organization and building a strong culture is absolutely essential,\u201d he said. \u201cI want people to come to Philly and be their best selves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Can that be the case if so many of those people are stars being asked to play new roles? The man who once gave up his own room so that his teammates would have a place to sleep is betting that the answer is yes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Yaron Weitzman<\/p>\n

<\/a>Yaron Weitzman is an NBA reporter and the author of \u2018Tanking to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Most Audacious Process in the History of Professional Sports.\u2019 Follow him on Twitter, @YaronWeitzman. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NBANBAHe was still learning everyone\u2019s names. Then he landed Jaylen Brown and LeBron. Now Mike Gansey faces an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":880903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-880902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=880902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/880903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}