Sixers Managing Partner Josh Harris Receives A Lesson In Optics, And A Few Other Things

It wasn’t all that long ago — Sept. 19, 2019, to be exact — that 76ers managing partner Josh Harris was asked to compare his private equity holdings and his pro sports endeavors.

“We always tell the story of (how) we owned Lyondell Chemical (in Texas) and we had thousands of workers, $50 billion company,”  Harris, who is also co-founder and senior managing director of the PE firm Apollo Global Management, told CNBC, “but no one really cared about the price of polypropylene, but everyone cares about the Sixers’ starting lineup or the (New Jersey) Devils’ starting lineup. You’ve got a lot of people that care and have a view. So, just there’s a lot of media attention and that takes a little bit of getting used to.”

It is a lesson that Harris, who has been part of the Sixers’ management group since 2011 (and the Devils’ since 2013), appears to still be learning. 

Certainly he received a refresher course in Optics 101 over an 18-and-a-half-hour period beginning 7:30 Monday night and ending shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday. And his best player, Joel Embiid, served as something of an adjunct professor.

It started with the New York Times’ Marc Stein reporting that Sixers and Devils employees making in excess of $50,000 had been asked to take temporary pay cuts of up to 20 percent. Per Stein, the cuts would begin April 15 and run through the end of June.

Not a great look, considering Harris has a net worth of $3.7 billion.

And considering we are, ya know, in the middle of a pandemic.

Nor did Harris look any better when ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported Tuesday at 11:45 a.m. that Embiid had pledged $500,000 to COVID-19 relief, while also committing to help out the Sixers employees who were about to see their salaries slashed.

By 2:06 p.m., Harris was in walk-back mode, announcing in a statement that he had reversed his edict of the night before: “After listening to our staff and players, it’s clear that was the wrong decision. … This is an extraordinary time in our world — unlike any most of us have ever lived through before — and ordinary business decisions are not enough to meet the moment. To our staff and fans, I apologize for getting this wrong.”

Thirty-three minutes later there was a tweet from Joel “Do a 180” Embiid: “In these trying times, I’m proud of the Sixers organization for reversing course and ‘doing a 180’. Let’s focus on beating this Coronavirus now. Let’s be responsible and Trust the Process!!”

Again, optics. Shouldn’t be hard.

Compassion, either.