Those who know him say Joshua Harris, soon-to-be Sixers owner, lives for competition and success

Maybe we've found Joshua Harris' weakness: He doesn't have much of an outside shot.

He's competitive, aggressive, strong going to the basket, solid defending, but perhaps can be allowed a little room on the perimeter.

Harris, head of the investment group whose ownership of the 76ers is pending approval by the NBA board of governors, seems like a man with few weaknesses: He's a billionaire, a respected businessman, a family man, and an athlete - not necessarily listed in order of importance.

He ran the 2010 New York City Marathon in a time of 3 hours, 53 minutes, 41 seconds. He has five children with his wife, Marjorie. According to Forbes, he's worth $1.2 billion. He recently attended his 20-year reunion for Harvard Business School and came across as the same guy he was back in the days when M.C. Hammer was cool and when Harris couldn't afford to buy a small country: kind, down-to-earth, charming, clearly the smartest in a room filled with intelligence.

And even though he might not possess a deadly outside shot, one friend explained that "he's the most competitive human being that I know. On the court, if the game is tied, you can be sure he'd be a go-to guy."

Harris, 46, is a founding partner at the private equity firm Apollo Global Management. He is joined in the investment group buying the Sixers by David Blitzer of the private equity firm Blackstone, portfolio manager Art Wrubel, and former NBA agent and Sacramento Kings executive Jason Levien. All are making private investments, having no affiliation with the firms Apollo or Blackstone.

Harris, Blitzer, and Wrubel are graduates of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

The group has agreed to buy 100 percent of the Sixers from Comcast-Spectacor for $280 million, a price that does not include the Wells Fargo Center; the NBA's board of governors is expected to approve the sale sometime in August.

Through a spokesman, Harris declined to be interviewed for this story.

Big Philly fan

Tony Ignaczak met Harris at Wharton undergrad. Both attended Penn from 1982 to 1986, both majored in the same subject, and both joined the same fraternity. They've remained friends since.

Their time in the city was a golden era for Philly basketball: The Sixers won the NBA championship in 1983, and Villanova won the NCAA men's basketball championship in 1985.