Sixers' Stefanski looking forward to working with his mentor Thorn

A 55-loss season will surely bring about a plethora of changes for an NBA team.

Case in point, this offseason for the 76ers. The head coach got axed the day after that 55th loss, a prodigal son was brought in as the new coach, a disgruntled veteran was traded, and yesterday an NBA lifer was brought in as president to help oversee those changes and provide thoughts of what more can be done to make this organization relevant again.

Players win games, as Rod Thorn said yesterday at his press conference at the Wells Fargo Center when introduced as the team's new president, but it seems the thinking of chairman Ed Snider is to bring in another mind-set to get the right players for new coach Doug Collins. Thorn was the president for the past 10 seasons with the New Jersey Nets before resigning last month.

"Rod is one of the most respected basketball minds in the game today," said Snider in a statement. "When we learned that he would not be re-signing with the Nets, we realized that this would be a terrific opportunity to bring one of the top executives in the NBA to the Sixers to work closely with Ed Stefanski."

Stefanski was the general manager under Thorn in New Jersey for six seasons, which included two runs to the NBA Finals. Stefanski, who has served as both general manager and president of the Sixers since December 2007, will retain the role of general manager.

Stefanski admitted to a small amount of surprise when he was told the team was looking to bring in Thorn, but greeted the news with open arms.

"Rod is my mentor in the NBA," Stefanski said. "He taught me a lot of things about the NBA. And besides that, we are close friends. I know Rod, he knows me. We work extremely well together. I think we were a hell of a team in New Jersey and I think the results showed that. There is no reason to say that we are not going to do the same thing here. We will work hard to get this back to where we were."

Thorn's departure from New Jersey wasn't perceived as amicable, though he said yesterday: "I think my instincts are pretty good, and my feeling was that my time had run its course there.