Armando Ortega: There are many times i've pointed the finger at the General Managers for that lack of direction , but in doing some soul searching I realize that I should have been pointing the finger at myself. Lack of direction starts at the top, and I'm at the head of this franchise. After this enlightenment, I took a long look in the mirror and realized maybe I'm not the right man to set direction of the franchise. So i came to a conclusion. I wanted to hire a man that could set direction and build a team that the city of Philadelphia deserves. I didn't want just a general manager, but i wanted a visionary who could lead us in a business and basketball sense. So with that, I'd like to announce the hiring of our new Team President and General Manager: Balls O'Hard.
Balls O'Hard: Thank you Mr. Ortega and thank you to everyone who has decided to join us today. First of all, I want to say thank you to Mr. Ortega for giving me this tremendous opportunity. I am happy to be back and am ready to get back to work. There's a lot of work to do and trust me, I'll get right to it. I think there has to be sort of a three pronged attack to get this franchise on the right track. First I will be evaluating what we have now. I will be meeting with players individually and see if they're long term solutions here or if they're just a moving part. Team pride and loyalty is what we will try and indoctrinate in not only our front office, but in our players.
Balls O'Hard: The second prong in our strategy is to make a plan on how to move forward after our evaluation is completed. So in other words, this is where we set timelines and milestones for the team and what we can accomplish in what amount of time. We will set how we will attack the draft, free agency, and the trade market. This will have to be fluid so we can set ourselves up for success, but not too fluid to where we never take a solid form and are in a constant state of flux. The last prong is execution of our plan. To quote Mike Tyson, "Everyone has a plan until they're punched in the mouth". We know situations will some up where our strategy won't work as planned, and it's important for us to adjust that plan and still be able to reach our end goals. That's a little breakdown on how we plan to attack this opportunity, and with that I'd like to open the floor for anyone with questions. Thank you.
