Longtime Rockets executive Tad Brown has reached an agreement to become the new CEO of the Sixers, as well as the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Both franchises are owned by Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment, which officially announced the hiring today in a press release.
Sixers co-owner Josh Harris said in a statement.
Brown spent 15 years as the Rockets’ CEO, announcing earlier this year that he’d be stepping down from that position at the end of the 2020/21 season.
It didn’t take Brown long to find a new job. The position in Philadelphia will reunite him with former Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, who is now the Sixers’ president of basketball operations. Brown will be replacing Scott O’Neil, who left the franchise last month after eight years as the CEO of Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment.
During his time in Houston, Brown helped the Rockets secure All-Star games in 2006 and 2013 and oversaw the sale of the club in 2017. In his new role with the 76ers, he’ll oversee the team’s business functions, per ESPN’s report.
Although his role is ostensibly on the business operations side of the franchise, Brown did discuss basketball matters with the media a number of times during his tenure in Houston and figures to be involved in negotiations involving players or coaches in Philadelphia. As Wojnarowski notes, Brown and Morey developed a “shorthand” with one another during their many years of collaboration that should be beneficial going forward.
Leave a Reply