Stefanski had 1 year remaining on his contract, while Thorn, who was brought in in August 2010, after a dismal 27-55 season, has several years remaining on a hefty contract.
Said Stefanski, who came to the team in December 2007: "This is the new ownership's day. I wish them all the best. Having met with Josh and Adam [Aron, the new CEO], the Sixers are in capable hands."
Among the more noteworthy moves Stefanski made in his four seasons were giving maximum contracts to Andre Iguodala and Elton Brand, firing fan-favorite Maurice Cheeks, hiring and firing Eddie Jordan after one season, and bringing in current coach Doug Collins. The team made the playoffs in all but one of Stefanski's four seasons.
According to an NBA source, talks between the Toronto Raptors and Stefanski for their vacant GM job have "heated up."
"I'm incredibly thankful for Eddie trusting me to be the coach," said Collins, a huge Stefanski backer. "I didn't butt heads with [ownership] at all about the decision. As we sat down, and you know how strongly I feel about Eddie and I think he's an incredible president or GM, but I think the way they explained it best was they thought they had two guys who were fulfilling the same role. Eddie and Rod are both qualified to be presidents of organizations. But my hopes and prayers are that Eddie is going to land on his feet and that he's going to get a great job. Somebody out there is going to get a heck of a basketball guy.
"I know we had some ups-and-downs here. He made some great draft picks in Jrue Holiday and getting Jodie Meeks [via trade]. We got Evan [Turner] last year and getting Nik [Vucevic] this year. Sometimes we focus in on one or two mistakes a guy has made, but everybody makes mistakes in this business. I'm going to miss him. I don't think they [new ownership] wanted too many voices in the decision-making of different things."
