April 12, 2016
For the Sixers, one of the supposed benefits to bringing Jerry Colangelo on board back in December was his role with USA Basketball. Colangelo not only gets to hang around the top basketball players in the world every summer, he was almost like their de facto general manager.
Not anymore. Colangelo, who still serves in his role with USA Basketball, had his power reduced almost immediately upon joining the Sixers according to Yahoo Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski:
Because rival teams protested about the potential for conflicts and player tampering after Jerry Colangelo partnered his duties as chairman of the Philadelphia 76ers and managing director of USA Basketball, the NBA restricted Colangelo’s reach in an apparent attempt to limit his access and influence over star players, league sources told The Vertical.
Among rival executives, there was concern that Colangelo’s powerful pathways and year-round lines of communication to elite American players could be leveraged into a free-agent advantage for the 76ers.
Colangelo no longer can vote for the final Olympic roster, and he has to make any opposing general manager aware of contact with specific players or their agents. The 76-year-old executive stepped down from his position as Sixers chairman this week, but as long as he remains an adviser to Josh Harris, those same rules still reportedly apply.
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