Sixers GM: Hiring Eddie Jordan Was Not The Right Decision

It’s hard not to sound like you’re throwing a coach under the bus when you fire them after just one season on the job. Still, Sixers GM Ed Stefanski found a way to throw Eddie Jordan under the bus on his way out in today’s press conference.

“What I thought would happen did not occur, the decision was not a right one. That’s why I made the choice to go now in a different direction to get someone to get us the right path.”

It’s one thing to say you wanted to go in a different direction. It’s another to also say you messed up and hired the wrong coach. Sure, both are true, but you don’t have to spell out that you messed up, because clearly you did if you’re firing a coach one year after you hired him.

That wasn’t all. Stefanski seemed to find other ways to put Jordan down in the press conference.

“I wouldn’t say there is not talent in that locker room. We underachieved this year.”

“The one thing I always felt with this team since I’ve gotten here was that defense fueled our offense. We got off to a very poor start. We talked about re-emphasizing the defensive end. We did emphasize it and our numbers, we got better statistically ... We started to win some games and then we went away from that emphasis defensively and that changed.”

On the offensive system: “Obviously, it didn’t work. We went through in the interview process all the personnel and what we had and the coach felt it would work. Because of the last two years in the playoffs, we were looking for that balance, efficiency in the halfcourt. We felt we had the defense, we felt we had the fastbreak ... we needed the halfcourt system to control the game better. Obviously, it did not work.”

Stefanski tends to give pretty dry quotes, so for him to repeatedly spell out that things “did not work” is pretty significant. Then again, considering how often Jordan threw his own players under the bus, maybe it’s fitting that he goes out this way.