PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Philadelphia 76ers have hired Rod Thorn as
team president.
The Sixers also said Thursday that Ed Stefanski will stay as general
manager. Stefanski had held both roles since replacing Billy King in
December 2007. King succeeded Thorn as New Jersey’s GM last month.
Thorn was president and general manager of the Nets for 10 years
before leaving in early July. Thorn and Stefanski worked together in New
Jersey and helped lead the franchise to consecutive trips to the NBA finals. The Nets lost both times.
“There’s been a lot of speculation that I was retired,” Thorn said.
“I was never retired. I retired from the Nets.”
Sixers chairman Ed Snider says the organization was excited to add
one of the NBA’s “top executives.” The Sixers went 27-55 last year and
missed the playoffs for
the first time in three seasons.
Thorn was contacted by Snider only a week after he left the Nets.
Thorn had called the shots for the Nets since 2000 and hired Avery
Johnson as coach before resigning. Thorn helped turn the Nets into a
contender in 2001 when he engineered a trade to bring Jason Kidd to New Jersey.
Before joining the Nets, Thorn was the NBA’s executive vice president
of basketball operations from 1986-2000.
This is the latest big move this summer for the Sixers after they
missed the playoffs last year. They fired coach Eddie Jordan after one
season and replaced him with Doug Collins. Then they traded disgruntled
center Sam Dalembert and drafted Ohio State guard Evan Turner with the
No. 2 overall pick.
“We could always use some more, but I like some of the pieces that we
have,” Thorn said.
Stefanski said after the season the Sixers took an “unacceptable”
step backward in finishing 27-55 and missing the playoffs for the first
time in three seasons.
“We don’t want to take any more steps backward,” Thorn said. “We want
to take steps forward.
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