Erick Thohir, the Indonesian tycoon who is in talks with Moratti about buying Inter has great interests in the world of sports. Just yesterday he spoke about making his DC United grow in the next two, three years with the youngsters being the base. Regarding the Inter deal though the keyword is discretion and will take some time. This is clear when hearing the statements from both protagonists with the Inter president reluctant to give up a majority deal of the club to the Indonesian.
Thohir has interests that reach beyond football, being the owner of a basketball team in Indonesia and one of the owners of the NBA franchise the Philadelphia 76ers. To understand his role in the Sixers FCInternews interviewed Jeff McMenamin editor of the Courier-Post and of Philadunkia, a blog that is very close to the team. This is what he told our partners about Thohir from a US view.
In Philadelphia Thohir is just one of the franchise owners, who are the others?
“The NBA teams often have a lot of owners with different quotes of ownership. The 76ers are owned by Joshua Harris, Adam Aron, David Blitzer, Martin Geller, David Heller, Travis Hennings, James Lassiter, Marc Leder, Michael G Rubin, Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Erick Thohir and Art Wrubel”.
Among those, what part does Thohir have?
“We in Philadelphia know little or nothing about him. He hasn’t even shown up for an official photo with the team. Thohir is just one who puts up the money but never does anything in person, these things are handled by others”..
For example?
“Josh Harris is the one who manages most of the operations; he handles communications and the business administration”.
So he has never been seen in Philadelphia?
“No, he hasn’t even passed by. I only know Aron, Harris and Rubin. Then there are Will and Jada Smith the movie stars that invest money but have nothing to do with managing the franchise. I would say they have a role similar to Thohir’s. I know that in Washington where he has the football team he has shown himself sporadically, anyway more than he has here in Philadelphia. In America nobody knows him or has seen him, an odd persona”.
source: FcInternews
