The Philadelphia 76ers’ busy summer is taking a hit before training camp even opens.
Ariana Andonian is leaving the organization to take over the front office operation for the Los Angeles Sparks, according to The Athletic’s Sabreena Merchant. The move gives the Sparks a new general manager for the first time in a little under three years after Raegan Pebley cut ties with the team back in July.
For Philadelphia, it’s a notable loss after a summer that reshaped the team’s outlook. The Sixers entered the 2026 offseason with little optimism after getting swept by the New York Knicks, but they responded with the kind of moves that changed the conversation from playoff hopeful to championship-caliber.
Mike Gansey and Jameer Nelson have gotten much of the attention for that turnaround, but Andonian was part of the machinery behind it. It’s unclear exactly how much influence she had on the Sixers’ biggest decisions as vice president of player personnel and GM of the Delaware Blue Coats, but she was close enough to the process to see how a major offseason is put together.
Now she heads to a Sparks team that sits No. 11 in the WNBA with a 15-25 record this season.
Andonian’s path to this point has been steady and impressive. At Duke, she worked under Mike Krzyzewski and Jon Scheyer as a player personnel consultant. Her NBA start came with the Houston Rockets as a scouting coordinator, when former 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey was running the front office there.
When Morey moved to Philadelphia in 2020, Andonian went to the Memphis Grizzlies and worked as a director of player personnel. She stayed there for four years before reuniting with Morey in Philadelphia and moving up within the 76ers organization.
Her run with the Sixers ends before the 2026-2027 NBA season, and while she won’t stay long enough to see Philadelphia’s WNBA team come to life, she may end up facing it from the other side in Los Angeles.
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