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Roma SPQR, often referred to as BC Roma, is aggressively shaping its infrastructure ahead of its debut campaign across the BKT EuroCup and Italy’s LBA UnipolSai, securing major front-office additions with extensive NBA experience. According to a recent report from Italian outlet La Prealpina, management has finalized an agreement with former NBA executive Bryan Colangelo, while also moving toward legendary strategist Mike D’Antoni to join the capital city organization’s Board of Directors. Confirming rumors, the former Phoenix Suns, Toronto Raptors, and Philadelphia 76ers general manager would step into a key advisory role for the ownership group. In this capacity, he is slated to represent the franchise directly at official meetings. The 61-year-old executive currently holds a minority stake in Italian football club Cagliari alongside his longtime associate Edoardo Bulgheroni and carries a decorated pedigree.
Who were some of the influential factors in your life to tell you to be yourself? You were an untraditional coach. Mike D'Antoni: Well, you know, besides being from a family that does that, and my brother who was coaching with me that had a similar philosophy, the main two guys were Jerry Colangelo and Bryan Colangelo. They put the team together, and then we’re talking about how to play and whatever, and I’m saying, you know, my gut says we should do this, but the traditional way is that. And they say, “go with your gut, do what you think’s best”. And so that’s when I decided to move Amar’e Stoudemire to the five and Shawn Marion to the four. It comes from years and years of playing, years and years of coaching, and past experiences from when I was a player, and what would feel good, and then as a coach and how it went with my team at Olympia Milano when I really started that.
D'Antoni on the acquisition of Steve Nash and the origin of Seven Seconds Or Less: "We got a preview, because Steve, being in Dallas, would come to Phoenix and play sometimes before the season started, just pickup ball in our gym with our other guys, no coaches or anything. And just watching him play, he just made everybody better. You could just tell. It was like, 'Okay, that's the guy we gotta get.' And luckily, we were able to do that. And Bryan Colangelo -- Jerry was obviously the big guy, but Bryan did an unbelievable job of getting Steve Nash, of seeing the vision, and with him and Jerry together, it gave me confidence to do something a little bit different than the normal NBA at the time. And so when that happens, it just -- I don't think any of us expected that it would explode like it did."
Colangelo thought Amare Stoudemire’s history said something about his mental toughness and determination. The more he was around Stoudemire, the more he liked him. At his pre-draft workout in Phoenix, Stoudemire — 6-feet-9 ½ inches and 246 pounds — was so aggressive that he knocked out an opponent’s teeth on a play near the rim. “He didn’t hit many midrange shots and had no 3-point accuracy to speak of, but he just had something about him,” Bryan Colangelo, the Suns’ general manager and Colangelo’s son, wrote in an email to The Athletic. “Charisma, curiosity, ferocity are words that come to mind. He was a live wire that brought unusual energy to a normally tense and apprehensive environment. These young men are literally trying out and competing for their life’s dream. Somehow Amar’e was immune to the pressure and appeared unfazed, even as an 18-year-old high schooler among some older and so-called wiser prospects. He literally had the gym mesmerized.”
But if you’re someone who covers the Sixers, someone who covered them during the Sam Hinkie and especially the post-Hinkie years, you don’t get Jerry Colangelo on the phone and not ask him about the strangest story in recent Philly sports history. So, Jerry, how is your son doing? “Bryan is doing fine,” he said. “He’s not in basketball, as you well know, and that’s a sad story from my perspective because he really had nothing to do with anything, if you know what I mean.”
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Bryan resigned in June 2018, then all but vanished. He reportedly bought an ownership stake in an Australian professional team in 2020; otherwise, his name appears publicly only in retrospectives or rehashes about the still-mind-bending circumstances and events that led to the end of his career. Jerry did not mention what Bryan was doing now. “I look at it this way,” Jerry said. “He had 20 years in the NBA as a GM, three different teams. He was executive of the year a couple of times, and he established himself on his own as a legitimate executive in the NBA. “Things happen in life that don’t always work out the way you want them to, and in his case, that’s what transpired. But he was very, very strong in his support of his own wife. That became stronger after the fact. It brought them even closer. So it’s a happy ending in the sense that he may be out of basketball and that still pains him, for sure, but he’s doing well for himself. He’s a good young man with a good heart.”
It would certainly be worth asking Bryan what he thinks. Any chance he’d talk? “No, he’s so private in that sense,” Jerry Colangelo said. “That’s not something he would do. He wouldn’t. It’s not so much to protect himself. He doesn’t want anything said about anybody. That’s just his M.O. There’s nothing wrong with that. There really isn’t.”
For those who don’t remember, Colangelo was forced to resign following a report by The Ringer that determined he’d used five burner accounts to disparage predecessor Sam Hinkie and several Sixers players. It turns out that one of the many people whom Colangelo’s burner accounts funneled information to was Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who admitted in a recent appearance on the Hello and Welcome podcast that the accounts served as one of his “best sources.” “That was crazy,” said Pompey of Colangelo’s burner accounts. “But the crazy part is the account… The people used to reach out to me. That was one of my best sources all the time. It was great, that was one of my best sources. So when he got caught, I was like… Cause it was kinda like ‘Such and such is going to happen today.’ So I would write it. First, you would verify it. Then all of a sudden you’re like, how come nobody is upset? Stuff like that. But yeah, I was upset.”
The Sacramento Kings sent a strategic chauffeur to the airport late Saturday morning to bring DeMar DeRozan back to their downtown facility. When DeRozan stepped off the plane, he was met by Jay Triano, the Kings’ lead assistant coach who also happens to be DeRozan’s first NBA head coach. Triano remembered the last time he was included in a high-stakes meeting regarding DeRozan’s future. It was 2009, the pre-draft process. Triano and Toronto Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo flew to Oakland, Calif., to watch DeRozan work out. They were so impressed that they promised DeRozan afterward, if he was available at the ninth pick, they’d select him. Don’t worry about working out for anybody 10th or later. Promise kept.
Speaking of Embiid, he took a shot at former Sixers GM Bryan Colangelo, referencing a series of burner accounts on Twitter that criticised him and former teammate Markelle Fultz. “I’ve been through a lot, whether you’re talking about GMs using burner accounts, talking trash on their players,” he said, talking about keeping the culture strong in the group.
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Simmons’ agent, Rich Paul, and family had decided that he’d be better off working with one of his brothers, Liam, a former low-level Division I guard and assistant coach, who now coaches at Division II Colorado Christian University. Brown, who'd been promoted to interim GM in the wake of former team president Bryan Colangelo's Twitter scandal, wasn’t sure the reason for the change. It also didn’t matter.
In the two years since, Colangelo has scarcely spoken publicly about the incident. When he spoke to the Herald from Arizona, he knew it was the elephant in the room. "I haven’t addressed it very much over the course of the last two years. I have stayed very much under the radar on the topic because it’s a sensitive topic, for a lot of reasons," Colangelo said. "Family, personal, professional, or otherwise. I have to say I was dealt a pretty big blow, personally and professionally. And it’s been a difficult time dealing with the fallout. I was completely blindsided by the accusation and the storyline of the controversy."