Former Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey was well-regarded in NBA circles when he stepped down from his post and, as such, it would be reasonable to assume he had a line of suitors to take over a similar position within the league. In fact, Morey quickly found a landing spot in heading up basketball operations for the Philadelphia 76ers and, in his first days in the new role, Morey is already drawing rave reviews for his decision-making. However, Morey didn’t necessarily think things would move so quickly, and he shared some interesting insight with Rich Eisen on Monday.
New @sixers president @dmorey dropped an interesting nugget about who reached out to him during his brief unemployment: pic.twitter.com/YFHqhaAQ8y
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) November 23, 2020
Morey referred to his pursuit by the 76ers as a “whirlwind” after he stepped down in Houston, saying Philadelphia “reached out immediately” and they “were aggressive.” None of that is surprising but, at the same time, Morey was candid in saying he didn’t see it playing it out as quickly as it did.
“I was hopeful that someone would call, but I thought it was going to take at least a year,” Morey said. “It was so close to the season. Usually, these kinds of transition happen quite a bit before the draft. The draft was only a few days away. I just figured I’d be sitting out at least a year and then evaluating options.”
From there, Morey made real news by saying that, in addition to “a couple of NBA teams,” he was contacted by an NFL team and a baseball team. Though the baseball topic wasn’t broached any further, Eisen did ask Morey for more information on the NFL conversation. Morey did indicate that the team that contacted him “didn’t offer it, and they just reached out to talk,” but he wasn’t quite ready to make that jump.
“I told them I probably don’t know enough… It would be very presumptive for me to think I could help an NFL team, but they did reach out,” Morey said. “I just figure my skills are much higher and better in the NBA. Just with the experience and everything, but it was an intriguing idea.”
Morey didn’t elaborate in full, but he did confirm to Eisen that the conversation was about running an NFL team, not simply a consulting role of some kind. It would certainly be interesting to hear which franchise thought it was interesting to take Morey’s temperature but, for now, observers are left to speculate on which professional teams from other leagues may have floated the idea.