The 76ers – owned by billionaires Josh Harris and David Blitzer – planned to cut employee salaries with the NBA on hiatus due to the coronavirus outbreak.
That went over predictably poorly.
Serena Winters of NBC Sports Philadelphia:
Josh Harris, managing partner of Sixers & founder of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, statement: pic.twitter.com/pJVaaLlCzS
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) March 24, 2020
So Harris and Blitzer aren’t saving any money AND must deal with unfavorable public perception? If you feel sorry for them, please limit your sympathy to 80% of your capacity.
This serves as a valuable trial balloon for other NBA teams. They all just got preemptively shamed into maintaining staffing… without first getting scapegoated like Harris and Blitzer.
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN:
Other NBA owners are watching Sixers and weighing the PR fallout vs. desire to do the same with salary reductions -- including some considering furloughs, staff cutbacks, etc. No owner wants to log into Twitter and see his net worth trending after announcing this kind of news.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 24, 2020
Joel Embiid – who pledged to cover lost wages – gets to play hero. So does 76ers minority owner Michael Rubin.
Shams Charania of Stadium:
Sources tell our NBA Insider @ShamsCharania: “76ers part-owner Michael Rubin is upset and outraged over the team deciding to reduce certain employees’ payment by up to 20 percent, temporarily.” pic.twitter.com/sL7tem2S42
— Stadium (@Stadium) March 24, 2020
Though they made themselves into the villains of this story, Harris and Blitzer deserve credit for reversing course. They didn’t have to do that. Not everyone would’ve. That at least deserves mention.
