The Philadelphia 76ers are in the midst of a busy offseason led by a new front office regime. The Sixers parted ways with Daryl Morey after six seasons and hired Mike Gansey as their new President of Basketball Operations following the decision.
Gansey has been aggressive in his first offseason running a basketball operations department. After 14 seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and serving as their GM since 2022, Gansey has added helpful players Dean Wade, Ariel Hukporti, and Anfernee Simons in free agency while also pulling the trigger on a blockbuster deal for Jaylen Brown from the Boston Celtics. It’s clear he is working on making the Sixers true contenders.
Wade, who played his entire seven seasons in the league with the Cavs, gave insight into what kind of person Gansey is as he rejoins him in Philadelphia.
“Mike Gansey, he’s a great person,” said Wade on Tuesday. “He’s got a great family as well. My wife knows his wife really well from, you know, the past seven years, but I think Mike was a big reason I was in Cleveland. I got an opportunity at a two-way, I think he had a big say in that coming in every day for the past seven years, and he was one of the first people you see when you come in for summer workouts.”
Gansey never played in the league, but he was able to play Division One while at West Virginia and had a lot of success. He was named to the All-Big East team in 2006 and averaged 12.8 points and 5.2 rebounds while shooting 39.5% from deep in his collegiate career at, first, St. Bonaventure and then West Virginia.
“He played Division One basketball at the highest level, and, obviously, a very competitive person,” said Wade. “Just off that alone, and when you sit down and talk to him and start talking basketball, you realize, how competitive and how serious he is as a basketball mind.”
Competitive is certainly the word. Gansey has been aggressive all offseason in an effort to beef up Philadelphia’s roster to be serious contenders in the Eastern Conference.
“I think through free agency you’ve seen the moves he’s made, and everything he’s done,” Wade explained. “He’s serious about this, and he knows how to make a team into a real contender, make a team better than before. I think he takes pride in that. He knows the game so well, and the ins and outs, that all the moves he’s made up this far have been serious moves.”
It’s very obvious that Gansey takes everything seriously and is looking to make sure the Sixers are in the best spot to contend. The moves that he has made signal a different-looking roster as Philadelphia transitions to the Gansey era.
“The way he works is super step-by-step and serious,” the new big man explained further. “As a competitor, you can tell he wants it just as bad as everyone else, if not more. He’s making moves to prove that. So, definitely a competitive person, and if you ever talk to him outside just basketball or anything, like you’re gonna see it. Like, card games, anything. He’s competitive, man. It’s pretty awesome.”
Wade, who went to Kansas State, ribs Gansey about the Big 12 rivalry. The relationship he has with the team’s president is one that helped him make his decision on the Sixers.
“He went to West Virginia, I went to Kansas State, so we were both Big 12 guys, and so there was a lot of trash talk and things like things of that nature,” Wade finished. “So, I know Mike pretty well, and I’m just super grateful he gave me the opportunity to come here.”
This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Addition Dean Wade gives insight into Sixers president Mike Gansey
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