LeBron James is headed to Philadelphia, and the move came together with a little help from an old Ohio connection.
James announced Friday that he is signing a two-year deal with the 76ers worth $8 million, the veteran minimum. It puts him on a roster that already looks loaded on paper, with former Kansas star Joel Embiid among the names in the starting lineup. But the Sixers still had to get the deal across the finish line, and that’s where Mike Gansey came in.
Gansey, now Philadelphia’s president of baseball operations, has a backstory that makes this one even stranger. He’s from Olmsted Falls, Ohio, and he’s just two years older than James.
The two crossed paths in the Cleveland area when James was at St. Vincent-St.
Mary High School in Akron. Their prep careers overlapped, and there’s even a photo of them in their high school uniforms.
From there, their paths split hard.
James went straight from high school to the NBA. Gansey took the college route, starting at St.
Bonaventure before transferring to West Virginia. He played two seasons for the Mountaineers from 2003-06, sitting out a year after the transfer, when WVU was still in the Big East.
At West Virginia, Gansey became a fan favorite and a major player in his own right. He helped the Mountaineers reach the Elite Eight in 2005 and the Sweet 16 in 2006. He was also a finalist for both the Wooden Award and the Naismith Award.
The NBA never drafted him, though. Gansey went undrafted and spent time playing overseas and in the NBA’s D-League, now the G League, before ending his playing career in 2011.
Basketball still pulled him back in. He joined the Canton Charge front office in 2012, eventually became the team’s general manager, and won G League executive of the year in 2017. That was also the period when James was back in Cleveland, and Gansey was elevated to Cavaliers assistant general manager in James’ final season there in 2017-18.
Gansey later became the Cavaliers’ GM in 2022 and was hired by Philadelphia in May. He wasted little time making noise in his new job, first pulling off a trade to bring in NBA champion Jaylen Brown from the Boston Celtics before helping land James.
Not many people can get LeBron James to sign on the veteran minimum at this stage. In this case, it took a Mountaineer with Ohio roots who has known him for years.
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For Cook, the appeal is not just talent, but how the pieces fit together as WVU tries to build depth and keep everyone on the same page. Latimers early maturity and Boswells speed give the Mountaineers a different look in the backfield, and both figures figure to matter as the season takes shape. [Read more 🡒]