NBA reportedly limits Jerry Colangelo's Team USA access and control
The rest of the NBA, particularly team owners of rival teams are rumored to be critical of the latest movements involving the Philadelphia 76ers and USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo. After Colangelo accepted the job of becoming the new chairman of the Sixers, it now has become apparent that opposing teams are seeing future conflicts, including but not limited to player tampering.
With that in mind, several league sources talked about the league's decision to limit Colangelo's access, control, and influence over star players. Furthermore, there was some concern that if the newly hired head of basketball operations in Philly will continue to have a free line of communication with the best players who play for the country, then he might be able to sway them at an advantage in free agency in the future.
As a matter of fact, Yahoo Sports reported that the league office already informed its Board of Governors about the new limitations directed to Colangelo's usual privilege of talking to players over a week after the Sixers hired him. To be more specific, the limitation is focused on his communication with players about anything that does not fall within the talk of USA Basketball.
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The involvement of the 76-year old with the Sixers organization and the controversy surrounding it even reached a higher mark when his son, Bryan, was later hired as the new team president of basketball operations. In essence, the franchise has been turned over to the father-son combo, even though Jerry immediately quit his title as chairman after his son was hired.
However, that move by the older Colangelo did not convince the NBA to withdraw the recently announced guidelines, citing the reason that he still is technically working for the Sixers.
It is worthy of mention that aside from the freedom to communicate with stars of the U.S. national basketball team, Colangelo also has general control for prospects and talents from the NBA in terms of inviting them for training camps and a tour of duty for international competitions.
