The Philadelphia 76ers are shaking up the snow globe … but not quite entirely.
Philadelphia has decided to fire president of basketball operations Daryl Morey, Shams Charania of ESPN reported on Tuesday. Charania does add though that the 76ers will be keeping head coach Nick Nurse in his position.
The move comes as the 76ers went a respectable 45-37 this season and even upset the Boston Celtics in the first round by rallying from a 3-1 deficit to win the series. But Philadelphia was then swept in the second round by the New York Knicks, continuing their streak of not making it to the Eastern Conference Finals for 25 years now.
Morey, the 53-year-old former Executive of the Year, had been in charge of the 76ers since 2020. But his reputation in Philly had taken a downward slide over the last couple of seasons thanks to some questionable moves (including giving out a max contract to Paul George and trading away Jared McCain for draft capital only). A recent report even claimed that the 76ers’ trust in Morey had completely crumbled.
As for Nurse, 58, he has been the head coach of the team since 2023. While Nurse, a former NBA champion coach, has gone only 116-130 (.472) in Philly and had his playoff strategy questioned this season, he has seemingly done just enough with a mismatched roster to be able to hold onto his job.
The 76ers will now be entering an uncertain offseason with a need to find a new head of basketball operations. But with franchise player Joel Embiid recently revealed to have been unhappy with the moves that the front office was making, firing Morey and keeping Nurse appears to be the team’s best course forward.
