Mike Lombardi is an NFL insider, but also a Philadelphia 76ers fan, so when he joined the Sports Junkies Thursday morning, he was able to give a unique perspective on Josh Harris the Sixers owner, and Josh Harris the pending Commanders owner, from both sides of the lens.
And he gave this interesting thought about watching the Sixers in Harris’ tenure, much of which was caught up in the beginning, middle, and now results of “The Process.”
“I’ve learned a lot from watching them, and when they decided to go down this ‘process’ road in 2013, everyone here was excited about it. My background is based on acquiring talent, because that’s what I did for 35 years in the NFL, but also developing a culture that brings out the best in the talent – and that was what was missing from this program. For all the losing as they built this program, they just catered to the players. I watched and kept thinking it was a Ponzi scheme, because it had no player development, so I never bought it. It takes talent to evaluate talent – you can collect all the draft picks you want, but if you make the wrong picks, or don’t understand talent, it doesn’t matter. They missed on developing a culture before they put the process in place; as Bill Walsh said, you can’t tack on culture after you win, that has to be first.”
So, as excited as everyone seems to be about Harris buying the Commanders, in this case, Lombardi thinks it’s (fan) buyer beware.
“As a Washington fan, I’d be concerned he is too player-friendly and wants too much for the players to be happy,” Lombardi said. “I’ve never been part of a program that worked if you’re not driving the players to be the best that can be. A former Canadiens player once told me they hated Scotty Bowman 364 days a year, but the day they got the Stanley Cup, they loved him.”
JP posited that it seems like Harris brought in the big-name coaches and executives and then stayed out of the way, but as Lombardi revealed, Harris’ asset management and analytics background has actually backfired on the Sixers at times.
“When he first bought the team he tried to go the traditional way, but he comes from an asset management background, so he was always into the analytical part,” Lombardi said. “ When he finally hired Sam Hinkie, he fully moved into that, and that put a lot of the other partners in play – and one of them thought Zhaire Smith from Texas Tech was as good as Mikal Bridges, plus we get a first-round pick, and how’d that work out? They made that deal (in 2018) based on analytics telling them they were the same player, but Mikal Bridges is an All-Star and Smith isn’t even in the G League. After 35 years studying players, I can tell you there are no two players who are exactly the same – so there’s no question Josh Harris will spend money and has the will to win, but what makes this tough with new ownership is do they know how to make moves and build culture within the building? The Commanders haven’t had a culture in the building since Dan Snyder bought the team, so this will take a lot of work.”
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Lombardi warned that the NFL often likes to suggest people for certain positions when new ownership takes over, so that could also be a drawback if Harris listens because “the league has no idea about building culture locally,” and he doesn’t think Ron Rivera has brought anything significant, either.
“What you hear is that he’s a player-friendly coach, but somebody has to drive the bus and run the program – if you’re player-friendly and not demanding? I’m not saying that you have to have a hard edge, but you have to be demanding and put the burden on the players to be the best they can be,” Lombardi said. “The Commanders are talented, but talent alone isn’t going to win anything. Ultimately, you have to be able to put the players in a situation to succeed.”
And one of the ways to do that is to do the opposite of what Harris did this year with the Sixers.
“He sits right next to Doc Rivers on the bench, and to me, you shouldn’t be sitting there, because that’s an awful message,” Lombardi said. “You need to have a global view of it. One of the reasons the 76ers don’t achieve is because they spoil all their best players. That comes from ownership; teams that win in the NFL, the owner drives the culture by saying the kind of team they want. If you want to be player-friendly, that’s great, but you’re never going to win a championship.”
Lombardi also threw out some coach and GM ideas if house is cleaned under Harris to 'eradicate the past and Dan Snyder,' as well as the importance of a QB in success and culture and more – take a listen above!
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