Chester native and St. Joe’s alum Jameer Nelson moves up in the Sixers organization.
Another voice will weigh in now that the Sixers officially have the third pick in the draft. ESPN’s Shams Charania has reported that Philadelphia is promoting Jameer Nelson to the assistant general manager role. A few years after his playing career ended, Nelson joined the organization in 2020. In that time, he made his way up from being a G-League scout to assistant general manager of the Delaware Blue Coats.
Nelson is originally from Chester and played college ball at St. Joes before his 14-year NBA career. Now he gets to be an important decision maker for his hometown team.
The Philadelphia 76ers are promoting Jameer Nelson to assistant general manager, sources tell ESPN. The 14-year NBA veteran and one-time All-Star is a Pennsylvania native and has served as a scout and G League GM for the 76ers since 2020.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 13, 2025
This was likely the path the organization had in mind for Elton Brand when he began his career as an executive. He returned to Philadelphia to mentor Jahlil Okafor in 2015 and transitioned to a front office role with the Coats.
The Bryan Colangelo burner scandal drastically sped up that process and Brand was made the Sixers’ general manager with only a year of experience.
For whatever it may be worth, the Blue Coats had a fair amount of success during Nelson’s time. They won the G-League Finals in 2022-23 after losing in the championship in each of the previous two seasons.
The amount of injuries the Sixers have dealt with over the past couple seasons have given some Coats the opportunity to showcase themselves on the main roster. Jeff Dowtin Jr. got plenty of reps going back and forth between Philly and Delaware. Isaiah Mobley and more notably, Marcus Bagley, each got an opportunity to play in the NBA last season as the Sixers struggled to fill out their roster down the stretch.