After leaving the Houston Rockets this fall after 13 years with the organization, Philadelphia 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey describes his offseason as a “whirlwind.”
Making an appearance on the Rich Eisen Show, Morey reflected on the past months, and how the Sixers aggressively pursued him after he stepped down from his role as Houston’s general manager:
“I was hopeful that someone would call but I thought it was gonna take at least a year. Because, you know, it was so close to the season. Usually these kinds of transactions happen quite a bit before the draft… I just figured I’d be sitting out at least a year and evaluating options.”
However, while Morey may have been surprised to have landed with an organization he felt comfortable with so quickly, Eisen — and the rest of the sports world — were busy raising their eyebrows at the wide range of interest the 48-year-old MIT graduate received.
As nonchalantly as possible, Morey revealed that “a couple of NBA teams, an NFL team, [and] a baseball team” reached out to him after he left the Rockets. Pressed by Eisen, Morey admitted that the NFL franchise he alluded to actually wanted to discuss the possibility of him running the team in a general manager-like role.
Having developed an outstanding reputation due to his analytics-based decision-making, innovative team-building and front office leadership, Morey would have been worth a look from an NFL team, even if he’s inexperienced as an NFL executive. Whether or not he would have felt capable or been capable can’t be answered by it would have been interesting for all parties.
As far as what NFL team reached out to Morey? The Washington Football Team is the only franchise currently without an official general manager.
