The BroadCast | A One-On-One With Daryl Morey

tell the vibes were real and sincere. The former NBA Executive of the Year sounded thrilled to be the seventy six ers new president of basketball operations. I've heard Philadelphia fans of the Vest and that's what I've seen on the road when i've been here. I'm excited to win you guys over, and I know you guys are gonna

be tough on me, and he should. With more in place, Elton Brand locked in as general manager and Doc Rivers now the head coach, the Sixers are feeling good with a healthy Joel and Ben Simmons and a group that Doc is coaching. We feel like people are underrating the Sixers right now, but we need to go out there and prove it. I'm Brian Seltzer, and on this episode of the broadcast, we go one on one with Daryl Morning as a new era of seventy Sixers basketball officially

gets underway. What's up, seventy Sixers pod peeps. I hope you're doing well. What a day it was Monday at the seventy Sixers training complex in Camden, New Jersey. Listen. I am a really lucky dude on a lot of levels, but especially on the professional front. The last four weeks just to be fortunate to be back on site at the training complex for Doc Rivers press conference and then just a few days ago back there again for the

introduction of Daryl Morey. A lot of rightful excitement inside the building for the Sixers with two major editions this offseason. If you follow the sport, you know Daryl Morey needs no introduction, the least of which from the likes of me. And if you're not familiar with Darryl's exceptional body of work and resume, hopefully you will be by the end

of this podcast. You know, during Darryl Moore's time with the Houston Rockets, where he was the last thirteen years period during which Houston had the second most wins in the NBA by my count, actually not my count Basketball Reference dot Com. I think I got this number right. Morey made two hundred forty six moves. Five of those transactions were with his new team, the Sixers, and that is where our conversation begins. I'm debating whether we should start with this, but I feel like it might be

a good icebreaker. Now I'm nervous. Oh yeah, go ahead. Better deal between the Houston Rockets and the seventy Sixers. The Sergey Less Shook trade or the furkon Aldemir Royce White second round pick trade. Well, the serge Lists Shook trade. There's actually five of those, think just one the Sixers. I believe he's the most traded player in NBA history. I never played here. Um, you might have to give me. I remember the furkon Aldemere trade. I do not remember

the whole Serageiless Shook trade. Do you have that, handy? I think it was a multi team trade. Oh, yes, went a couple of different places and had multiple permutations. He never put on a uniform here. I would say, you know, since we both had seventy trades, probably a lot of them were mostly forgettable. It's funny though, thinking about you being here. It certainly feels, at least to someone who's been around the team for a bit, a

little bit surreal. But then there's this under of yes, yeah, right, exactly think about me. I know, why do I make it always about myself? I have a habit of doing it. But it's like it feels like there's this familiarity that's pre existing with you coming in here. Do you feel the same way about it? Kind of? I mean I do. I mean in the sense that, first off, I'm sort

of a Midwest Northeast guy, so that that feels natural. Second, I am happy for Elton and Sam and those who set things up to have to have Joel and Ben is like, you know what, why you go through all the tough seasons, and so I'm at some level I feel bad, you know, I feel like I'm the you know, you know, others have driven the car a whole way and then I just need to like bring it in right at the end. But and hopefully we do that. But um no, it's it's a great roster to work

with and I love the fans, you know, So I'm excited. Yeah, you really didn't. Not just saying this because we're sitting here talking now. You sounded genuinely over the moon, really enthusiastic in your introductory press conference. What is pumping you up the most about this opportunity? I mean, look, I

just I just want to win the title somehow. I mean, and you know, an opportunity comes along like this where you got a great chance and to work with committed ownership like Josh and another chance to work with we know as a championship coach and Elton is going to be one of the all time great execs in this league. And you know so, I you know it was it was an end. Then then a roster that's ready to win.

I mean, you can't ask for much more given the connections that you had personally and professionally with the Sixers going back a handful of years. How much from Afar when you were in Houston, were you paying attention to what was happening here? Yeah, it's my job defendions. I do pay attention more to the West. When I was in the West, Um, you know I actually would tract the East pretty close. Yeah, just because of who was here.

And then obviously working in Boston for many years. So but it was mostly like, oh, I hope I faced one of those teams in the finals. So yeah, No, I definitely had an affinity. You know, I've always known a lot of the people here. So yeah, going back three weeks ago, could you have possibly vision this happening? Like what do you think you'd be doing three weeks after?

You just know? I mean I actually was sort of excited to do it because you know, some good friends like Sam just went through like hey, what am I gonna do next period? And I was actually sort of looking forward to that. I did not think an opportunity would come along quickly that. You know, my good friend Jeff van Gundy, he left coaching and now we're fifteen years later and he hasn't done something yet, like just

it hasn't aligned for him. And so to have something aligned quickly was like I was like, you know, so so happy, you know, because sometimes when you take a step away, you're like, will anyone you know, will anyone have interest? You don't know, right, you just don't know. So I was looking forward to that time. My family's angry with me. They they think they're like I thought you're supposed to spend time with us. I'm like, yeah,

that's a good opportunity came along, forgive me please. Luckily they're old enough they can sort of understand that something great came along. So there's got to be an itch burning within you. I gotta believe just based on that, well, I mean, burning would be understood. I mean, frankly, I've had the opportunity to, you know, get certain accolades, make it to the conference finals, get awards, all this other stuff that doesn't matter. And so, like I talked about

the press conference, I'm looking only on championship probability. I mean, that's that's that's that's for me too. Like I really, you know, I just feel like I haven't accomplished much unless I can somehow get that done. It's funny because just in speaking with Elton over the last couple of years, that's something that clearly is motivating him. Never won the title as a player, wants to get one as an exact and then Doc comes at it from a completely

different perspective. He won it, but it was over a decade ago, and it's like, once you taste it for the first time, how can I get so jealous of his one though. Yea, hopefully we're hopefully we're comparing rings at some point. But now he's awesome, and he his ability to pull a team together quickly, which he did in Boston was really really impressive, And you know, I just love that he He has an approach and a style that help that helps teams win at a high level.

I think he's going to go down as one of the all time great winning coaches ever, obviously with the championship. So you know, it's why I was trying to get him to Houston before, Like I just you know, it was fantastic that I got a chance to work with

him here again. So if we're thinking of this next question in the vein of you narrating a sequence of events for the people out there, can you walk me for as much as you can through the timeline of leaving Houston and now here we are sitting talking about you being the president of basketball operations for the Sixers. I mean, honestly, I'd have to such a whirlwind. So you know, I definitely was interested in stepping away. I

thought it was the right time for everything. I was able to work that out with Houston and then when it got it now, it was like boom. I mean it was it was It was nice because you don't know how people are going to react. I had never gone through it. I imagine It's how you know, um, players often feel when when teams are calling them, you don't always know they're gonna call, right, And I had

no idea. Um, but you know there are teams from football, from baseball, you know, from investment opportunities, a couple of NBA teams, and but the Sixers opportunity, they were super aggressive. Doc and Elton were like wanting me to come right away. Um and um, you know, and then Josh obviously super committed. I mean it was obviously hard to say, know with with the roster, getting to work with Doc, getting to

work with committed ownership was amazing. What do you think it says about Elton that it sounds like he was one of the driving people leaving the charge on it. Well, that's the thing I was going to say in the press, cout I didn't get a chance. But like, how rare is that that you know he's told you he only

cares about winning a title. This proves it right, because you know he's just like we're gonna do whatever it takes, and I just I love that about him, and I to me like he's already on his way to be He has such a great feel that you don't really get as quickly in the job as he already has. Honestly, but in my third year or whatever he's in and the job, I was sort of stumbling around like an idiot. So so I'm so impressed by him and the fact that he has, you know, wanted me here and welcome

me has been mean so much. Let's talk about the roster a little bit. There's obviously two very un all stars in Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. Ben, where do you see his game at right now? I see as one of the best up and coming players, already very good, but at twenty four can get even better. Very few players played at his level at twenty four. He usually means even bigger things are coming, you know. I think Doc is going to figure out how to utilize him

even more, whether it be in transition. Obviously, his defensibility really shown through last year. I mean, if you have that as a foundation, you're always going to be a good player, because if you start with defense, you know, and then he's super skilled offensively as well. You know, the sky's the limit. What about Joe, Well, you certainly spoke highly of him in the press conference, but it really seems like he's got everything there to take this

team where it wants to be. Frankly, like, I see no reason he can't be one of the all time great bigs. I mean, he's got every component. When he's on the floor. Defensively, he might be one of the most impactful defensive bigs of all time. And offensively he can do skilled things that like big men aren't supposed to be able to do. I mean, it's really fun to watch. And the fact that he's, you know, here twice a day, working and focused, is it means a lot. Have you had a chance to speak with him at

all or just observe him a little bit. Yeah, I've spoken to a lot of the roster, the ones that I haven't gotten too, I'm getting to today. I was trying to call them rapidly because you know, obviously we don't get anywhere without the players, so I've got to hit all them today. For someone in your position coming in, what's the message that you want to impart upon the players. I mean it's you know, we're all working together for

the same goal. I think you get to the best place in the NBA by involving your players, having them feel like they're part of the decisions, part of the environment. They set, the culture, they set, the work ethic. Doc's gonna help with his leadership ability is going to help

them become better leaders. But it really fits my style. Honestly, my style would not work in college or high school, where it's you know, where some great programs are sort of like here's how you do it the you know, the the X way is the way you do things. You know. For me, I'm trying to help the players figure out their best skills, their best leadership. How do we use it all together, work with Doc and create

like this greater thing. So that's what I've always tried to do in Houston, and you know, I had a lot of success, just not the ultimate. And I was going to ask you, what have you learned about the balance that has to be struck between trying to create this collective being that needs to thrive, but then also their individual players were talking about here there could be a James Harden or there could be an Austin Rivers

or guys in between, deep guys on the bench. So what have you learned over your career about how to manage the individuals that make up the whole. Yeah, it's a challenge. Obviously. I worked with a head coach a lot and take a lot of their guidance. I've I've been extremely lucky to work with great head coaches Doc when I was in Boston, jeff E Gundy, Rick Autam, and Kevin McHale, Mike D'Antoni. I've been lucky, like all those coaches have all stayed four years or more with me.

I work heavily with them to figure out how to and learn how to touch those players in a way where they they get excited and motivated to come to work and motivated to win. Um. And I've taken a little bit from each each person. And you know one thing that Doc seems to have one of the best feels that is, yeah, how to how to inspire these guys to like want to come in and you know,

you know, basically crushed the day that day. Um. You know, so I lean I lean on the coaches evily, frankly, Um, I try not to, you know, unless they're seeking me out. I try not to get too too UM two too. You know in the coach's business, you and Doc did have that brief overlap in Boston. After that. How much did you guys stay in touch quite a bit obviously. You know, we had a son at Houston who UM did was awesome for us. UM. You know, it's a small, tight knit community in the in the NBA. Doc is

really tight with Chris Paul, who we had. So there's lots of over laps, Yeah, lots of overlaps. Do you think there's any misunderstood parts about your philosophy? I mean, obviously I think people throw out that the analytics tag words so often, But do you think there's anything that's misunderstood about the way you do things? Yeah? I would say the main thing is, you know, I use data

to make great decisions. The job is really the same, It's been the same since Red arbucked, and it's like, you know, make great trades, free agent signings and draft picks. It's really that decision making and then set the right tone for the organization. Data helps you like make sure you're not fooling yourself right, you know, like like Sam did many years ago. He looked and he said, look, we're not close to winning. We need to take this path right now. We know we have two star level

players in twenty four and twenty six. That is enough. As long as you can get everything together and the right mix and the right focus, you can win with that. So data allows you ask the right questions. But people think like that we use data to like make the decisions. No, we use data to ask the questions like you know, we you know, we think you know, um, Joel's post ups are great. Well, let's check the data. Okay, they are,

they are great. Let's let's go to that. How do we how do we look at how to make that better? Things like that. So, and does ultimately come down to just trying to get the best out of the best talent and all the talent that you have. Yeah, I mean it really just comes down. Yeah, you take your players, figure out what they do best, push them to get better at the things that they can get better at. And uh, and it's not a dogmatic thing. There's not

a lot of prescription or proscribing. It's, you know, take what they're best at and put it on the floor and That's why I love Doc too. He's got a history of molding what he does around the players. I know going back that this was an industry and profession that you sounded like desperately wanted to get into. From writing teams letters and just trying to break down, yeah, try to do a little bit. I feel like I

had to get a haircut and do some research. Those are the two things to risk risk at all, get a beard trim. So I think everyone, you know, everyone's got a little bit of quarantine follical situations going on the interne um. Did you always think that this was something that you could do, Like it sounded like you really wanted to get into it, but you do always

believe that this was something you could do. Yeah, folks, Ically I had the analog Facebook is what existed when I went to Northwestern in ninety one and someone dug it up, and yeah, my Facebook thing was about how I wanted to how I wanted to be a GM someday. So I always hoped I could. As you mentioned, from ninety six when I was at Stats Sink until two thousand and two when I got a job with Boston, I couldn't get anyone do give me a chance. So did a whole bunch of other jobs during that period.

So was there a moment you can pinpoint or a deal that you were involved in, a decision you made that gave you the confidence that this was the path in the field for you to be in. Yeah, I mean I think I think Sam mentioned it. I think the toughest and biggest trade we made was trading Ray for Austin out for Kyle in the middle of a playoff run. That took a lot of conversations leadership, ownership, buy in, coach, buy in, player, buy in to say we're gonna take our starting point guard and move him

along in the midst of winning fifty plus games. That that deal and then having it work out, I think gave me a lot of confidence. We're gonna land the interview plane shortly. Try to do some off the court stuff. I'm ready. What do you know about the city of Philadelphia? Oh boy, I've watched the show Always Sunny Philadelphia, which

I think probably doesn't help me too much. I'm guessing that's like Louis Scala learned English from friends, So I'm guessing I've I've got this warped view now I have the view for my wife, who's from New Jersey, that isn't always the most positive. There's a lot of rivalry there sometimes. Although she was in the part of Jersey Freehold the boss is hometown, which is you know, I guess part Philly, Partney Arc. So what do I know?

I mean obviously, I mean I studied the Founding Fathers, not in school, but like just and not from Hamilton either. Like so Ben Franklin's my guy actually, so a lot of like actually, my leadership style comes from reading a lot of his stuff. So he was you'll see I hang back a lot. You know, I'm trying to get, you know, the information out of everyone else before I go, because if I go first, then you know, can set

the tone and people can sort of line up. If you're trying to get the best info, you want to make people comfortable to give you feedback, tell you when you're being an idiot, and give you that feedback before you start to blabber on, which I can do, by the way. So but yeah, so not much. I'd say, I'm gonna just admit I don't know a ton about Philadelphia except you have great fans. I would agree with you on that. Yeah. I think it's around eight hundred pages.

The biography on Ben Franklin. I admittedly have not read all of it. I tried to get through some of it. I'm not as a committed reader as I should be. But he seemed to me like he was kind of a glue guy. He just he made things actually knowing what he did, because he would fall asleep in the meetings and stuff like that. I'm not gonna fall asleep in the meetings, Josh, trust me. Door Um. But yeah, I know he was the one off to France to get him involved, and yeah, I know he's it's anyway.

So is he from Philadelphia? Is that true or no? No, I thank you. I think I don't know see an adopted area where it came to be exactly? Yeah? Um food, I think that's just a prerequistion. Like Houston, we have a problem. The equivalent is talking about cheese takes here? Is that true? That? Like, it's just as annoying. I'd say to identify as an outsider if you come in and write off the bat and being like where do I go to get? Yeah, where's cheese takes? Yeah, cheese whiz?

Or not. Yeah, So are you a fan of food scenes in general of the cities that you travel to? Well? Food, as people can see, it doesn't always miss me sadly, so uh so, yeah, I do like food, ideal tight meal, if we dive deeper into this topic, ideal meal or cuisine I do love. I do love sushi. Which how is the sushi scene? I'm not sure if it is

Philly known for that. I'm not sure if there are some places I don't know if we can say, like on record, and maybe that would seem like it's too much of an endorsement, but like a good steakhouse though, that's probably my best So yeah, I think the city can offer Yeah both, that's good. What is Philly known for food? Was? I actually don't know. I think right now it's just known for being a food destination in the Northeast, Like it's it's something that is a It's

an affordable city. You know, you can go either four dollars signs or one dollar sign and get a really good meal. Is that from your Google search? The number of dollars? What is zagging? I don't know. I don't know if Zagat does dollar signs, but it's it's got a little bit of everything. Like there's a lot of creativity, a lot of different influences. That's been the unfortunate part of it, the pandemic. It's like a lot of the restaurants make it hard by it. You mentioned the Boss.

I'm not saying do you like the Boss? But music? Watch what's playing on the Darren Moory playlist or well, I like, I'm big into musicals, so now this will just lose all Philly fans. But I do love I do love musicals, So that's that's sad but true. Seventeen seventy six to Musical Great Great, especially with with data was the lead. Any Authors who really inspire you to be from Philly? No, just anything? Yeah, authors that inspire me?

I do love Bill James, the famous architect of a lot of baseball stuff, but surprisingly good author solve the Kennedy assassination. Well not really, but like he thinks he has the highest probability um authors. That's a good one. Books. I do love Shara. You know Killer Angels was about the Civil War. I love that book so off the top of my head. So the last what you're binging slash interested in type question podcast do you have any favorite pods? You know, I have a strange hatred of

podcasts interest. I'm sorry since this is probably start of this will be used for a podcast, but I'd love to hear more. I like when people take the time to curate it into something I can read quickly. I'm I'm I'm big on efficiency and podcasts and no offense to Bill Simmons to go like eight hours and there's like three nuggets, you know, I'm not sure. So anyway, I'm gonna try and make this an efficient podcast, even though I think I failed. I think I failed. I

think that's all. I think this is the mid range shot of podcasts, So we got to finish strong. We've got to make it a winning clutch mid range jump shot. Um, what's your timeline like right now? On the job front? Mean, it's got to be crazy. The draft is coming up in about two weeks. I mean, drinking from the fire hose. I'm real happy. You know, Elton has a great staff that I'm gonna be leaning on. He's brought in some great people, and Peter and Prosper and Jamir had some

great people here, you know, Vince Rosman. I mean they've They've just got a really great group. Obviously, we're doing a lot of prep in Houston that hopefully I still remember some of it. And but it's a sprint. It's drinking from the fire hose right off the bat, whether it's the draft or free agency. How do you go about setting Maybe you don't even do this, but is there a general criteria that you follow for the type

of player holistically that you want to bring in. I like to tell everyone who were taking before we do it, and then and just see what happens. Listen, it's a great strand. No, I mean, I think the best thing in the drafts is the exact opps. It'll just be flexible. You know, Chris Wallace a mentor of mine in Boston, he's a very smart basketball guy. He told me there's always another basketball player. Like in the draft. All these bets are actually pretty similar, and so you got you

gotta make some judgments between them. But the worst thing that happened often is you get locked into a certain thing. All right, cool, and we can end on this type of note. So you're wearing a Black Lives Matter face mask when you came out here to go up on the press conference stage for the interview. You've spoke in the press conference about the importance of you using this platform, the League using this platform. Are they counting my votes?

INSI has someone checked Twitter? I hope. So I think there's one more ruling that has to be made later today, still still going okay, but speak to that a bit like just especially in the current climate win right now, how important is it to foster and inclusive environment, an environment of empowerment. Well, I think there's a lot of tough things in the world right now, and I'm generally blessed, and so I recognize that. So whenever I can help,

I think I've been big on the ESLU. That's been my big, my big sort of cause and free speech, civil liberties in general. I gave you my largest amount of money to them to help with voting. Actually, so it's sort of ironic that the thing that I helped have happened is now what they're trying to toss in Houston. So that's got me a little angry right now. But you know, I think voting machines, voting infrastructure, disenfranchisement, all those things are really important to you know, to focus on,

and so anything involving civil liberties. I'm I'm I'm really strongly behind. Do you have thoughts on a message on what you would say to people regardless of what happens on November third, Because listen, that's one part of this process. We might not know the outcome until days or weeks beyond that. But regardless of what the outcome is, is there something that people can take from this time where it seems like there's such a call for change moving forward?

I would say, whatever whatever happens, I believe in America. I believe in our infrastructure. I think our infrastructure has been pretty damaged, but it's stronger than one short period. By and large, people are We have more great people than not, and you know, I think our institutions will stay strong well. Put Darrel, Welcome to Philadelphia. Thanks, thanks, thanks so much. Appreciate it. From Ben Simmons to Joel and b to Ben Franklin and seventeen seventy six the musical.

A lot of good stuff in there for Daryl Morey. Hopefully learn more about him as a person as a basketball executive from the chat. We'll appreciate him being so generous with his time on the day he was introduced

on Monday. Be a on the lookout in the feed here on the seventy six ers podcast network for additional bonus episodes from Monday's press event, we'll have a few one on ones with Doc Rivers, Elton Brandon, Josh Harris coming away as well, and in the not too distant future, we'll launch our draft coverage as we speed towards Draft Day twenty twenty, which is on November eighteenth. I'm Brian Seltzer. Talk to next time. Take care,