Ed Stefanski

If you want to make Ed Stefanski uncomfortable, ask the 76ers' president and general manager about his role in the team's stunning turnaround. Stefanski goes to great pains to deflect any praise. "Mo [Cheeks] and the staff have done an unbelievable job, and the players are the ones executing it," Stefanski said. "I haven't scored one point or made one rebound. I didn't score many points when I was playing, and I am certainly not now. " When Stefanski was hired Dec. 4, the Sixers were sputtering at 5-12.

There are two days until the gate closes. Two days until the NBA's trading deadline, after which the only way the 76ers can improve their squad is by signing basketball vagabonds to 10-day contracts. And in those two days, now that the all-star break is behind them, the Sixers will play back-to-back games: Tonight against the Indiana Pacers at Conseco Fieldhouse; tomorrow against the Denver Nuggets at the Wachovia Center. The Sixers have not played since Feb. 11, a win over the Memphis Grizzlies that sent the Sixers into the break with a 27-24 record, winners of four straight.

With at least four spots to fill on his roster for the 2009-10 season, 76ers president and general manager Ed Stefanski was making the rounds yesterday at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. Twenty-one teams are represented in the 10-day event, which began Friday. "I'm watching players and staying in communications with other teams and agents," Stefanski said by telephone. "We need to add depth. " Though the NBA maximum for player rosters is 15, the Sixers maintained a 14-man team last season.

Attendance was lagging, the team was struggling, and the relevance was dwindling. Those are just some of the reasons the 76ers yesterday made a change at the top, introducing local product Ed Stefanski as their new president and general manager before an overflow news conference at the Wachovia Center. Stefanski replaced Billy King, who had become a lightning rod for criticism. "There were a bunch of factors," Sixers chairman Ed Snider said in explaining why the 53-year-old Stefanski was named the team's 11th general manager.

Six months ago, the 76ers were talking as if Andre Miller was a necessity, as though having a team without him would be like walking into the gym without a ball. Today, it seems he has become an aging veteran, one to whom the Sixers don't want to attach themselves for an extended period of time. Or that's how the story was told yesterday, the official opening day of NBA free agency: The 33-year-old Miller and his agent, Andy Miller, want a contract in the three-year, $30-million range, while the Sixers are thinking more in the one-year, $6-million range.

1. Ed Stefanski 2. Billy King 3. Larry Brown 4. Anyone else

It would be so neat and tidy to write that New York billionaire Joshua Harris and his ownership group weren't going to change a thing. We could write that 76ers team president Rod Thorn will be retained; general manager Ed Stefanski will be offered a hearty slap on the back and some new business cards; and coach Doug Collins will be given the freedom to do what he does. And does quite well. We could write that the new owners will slip into their new offices, change the nameplates, and everything will carry on without a hiccup.

Manute Bol, 47, a giant among even NBA stars and a towering symbol of hope in his native Sudan, died Saturday morning. The former 76ers center died at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, where he was being treated for acute kidney failure and a skin disease, Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. Mr. Bol, who at 7-foot-7 could be an intimidating defensive presence on the court, was also known for his humanitarian efforts in Sudan. He founded Sudan Sunrise, a group based in Lenexa, Kan., working to end oppression in Sudan.

The New Jersey Nets promoted Ed Stefanski to general manager yesterday. Stefanski, a former Penn guard and Monsignor Bonner High coach, served as senior vice president of basketball operations last season. He was the Nets' director of scouting the previous 4 years. "Ed is a keen evaluator of basketball talent," Nets president Rod Thorn said. "He is ideally suited for the demands of his new position. " Stefanski, 50, will have new responsibilities, but Thorn said he will continue to make decisions on trades with "a lot of input" from Stefanski.

Former 76ers general manager Ed Stefanski keeps his eye on the 76ers from Toronto, where the Penn and Monsignor Bonner graduate is the executive vice president of basketball operations. Stefanski was in town Saturday with the Raptors, making his first appearance with his new team. He said he still keeps an eye on the Sixers and is proud of what he left behind. "Obviously, I'm a little prejudiced, but I think the 76ers are a really good team," Stefanski said before the game.

THE SIXERS need to remember the lesson the Atlanta Hawks taught them 3 summers ago. At the start of the 2008-09 season, the Sixers were a big player in NBA free agency - one of the few teams with the ability to sign a big-name free agent. Before the Sixers ended up giving a max contract to Los Angeles Clippers power forward Elton Brand, they wined and dined Hawks restricted free agent forward Josh Smith. But the Hawks made it perfectly clear to everyone who would listen they had no intention of letting Smith, then 22, leave Atlanta.

PLAYERS AND owners still have to vote on the new deal and details remain, but as the NBA stirs to life after a 149-day lockout, one thing is certain: Sixers coach Doug Collins will be rarin' to go. "If the new deal is completed some day at midnight, I would expect coach Collins to be calling us less than a second after that," guard Evan Turner said. "But like coach Collins, we will be ready as a team to play and play well as soon as we are able to get together. "I'm looking forward to the season.

On Wednesday night, the Toronto Raptors officially announced the hiring of former 76ers general manager Ed Stefanski. Stefanski will become the Raptors' executive vice president of basketball operations, reporting directly to Raptors president and general manager Bryan Colangelo. Stefanski's new job is not unlike the one he left behind - reporting to Sixers president Rod Thorn during the 2010-11 season. "Ed Stefanski embodies everything I was hoping to attain when the search began for a top-level basketball executive to join our staff," Colangelo said in a news release.

FORMER 76ERS president and general manager Ed Stefanski, relieved of his duties with the team just 9 days ago, last night was named executive vice president of basketball operations for the Toronto Raptors. Stefanski joined the Sixers in December 2007, leaving the same position with the New Jersey Nets take a job in his hometown. Stefanski, a Monsignor Bonner and University of Penn grad, spent 9 years with the Nets in a variety of roles, including the last 2-plus years as GM before moving to the Sixers.

IN WHAT is sure to be a common occurrence among NBA teams as the lockout continues, the 76ers yesterday let go of two of their employees - NBA scouts John Nash and Chris Ford. At a news conference last Tuesday when the new ownership of the team was introduced, it was announced that general manager Ed Stefanski had been released of his duties. "I've had the good fortune to do this for a long time," Nash said last night. "I've been general manager for four different teams [Sixers, New Jersey, Portland and Washington]

New Sixers ownership has ever-dyspepsic Philly fans hoping for all sorts of changes - including axing Hip-Hop. Even if a league website calls him "the coolest mascot in the NBA. " This morning, WIP (94 FM) host Angelo Cataldi, appearing on CBS3, held up a bowl to illustrate what the big-eared bunny's next role should be: "Rabbit stew!" he bellowed. "Lame and stale, like the mascot version of planking," wrote Comcast SportsNet's John Gonzalez, declaring even no replacement would be an improvement.

If it seemed odd that the new owners of the 76ers would hold a loud celebration Tuesday to mark their acquisition of a becalmed basketball team that plays in a league that currently doesn't exist, then you haven't really paid attention to how these guys run their businesses. The group led by Joshua Harris and David Blitzer, two men who have done very well moving money from one pocket to the next, didn't buy the Sixers despite the fact the team operates in the red and isn't a very attractive commodity on the market.

SINCE IT WAS announced in the middle of the summer that an investment group headed by billionaire Joshua Harris was going to purchase the 76ers from Comcast-Spectacor and chairman Ed Snider, the same question has been on the lips of most every sports fan in Philadelphia: Why? The punch line: Because he can. The real answer: Because he sees an opportunity, one similar to those he embraced with other businesses that he has turned around as he built his fortune, valued at nearly $1.5 billion by Forbes . But also one that is different, because of the scrutiny that comes with owning a team in Philadelphia.

The 76ers and the NBA might be out-of-sight, out-of-mind, but the franchise's new ownership group, introduced Tuesday on a stage in the Palestra, will be doing its best to turn the spotlight on a sport buried beneath a labor dispute. Wrapped in all things Philly - championship banners, red, white, and blue, the Palestra itself - new managing owner Joshua Harris and new chief executive officer Adam Aron unwrapped the first phase of what they hope will be a successful face-lift for the city's once-proud NBA franchise: reductions in ticket prices, a new slogan, and a website dedicated to opening communication between fans and ownership.