Thorn joins Sixers as club president
Basketball Betting Lines
08/12/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rod Thorn wasn't out of work long, as the former New Jersey Nets president has landed the same role with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Thorn spent 10 years as team president and general manager of the Nets, but announced last month he was stepping down. New Jersey then named former Sixers general manager Billy King as their new GM.
In his new role, Thorn will be working with Sixers general manager Ed Stefanski, who took over for King in December 2007 and had held the dual roles of GM and president. Thorn and Stefanski worked together for seven years with the Nets.
"I look forward to working with him as we go forward," Thorn said at a Thursday press conference. "He understands me and I think I understand him. I think we make a good team."
The 69-year-old Thorn was the NBA's Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations from 1986-2000. Before that he served as GM of the Chicago Bulls and was instrumental in the club's selection of Michael Jordan in the 1984 draft.
"Hopefully, we'll be able to do some really good things here," remarked Thorn. "I've done a lot of different things over the course of time in professional basketball. Having seen many different organizations, that's the key thing, you have to have passion to win."
Thorn said his decision to resign with the Nets was in fact that, and he was not forced out with the new ownership. He added that the Nets offered him a lucrative contract to remain with the franchise.
"Over my time with the Nets, most of it was great," said Thorn. "The last few years we dismantled the team, on purpose, because of a corporate decision and that wasn't much fun. My feeling is, that time had run its course there."
Thorn helped build a Nets franchise that reached the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003. The team went to the playoffs for six consecutive years from 2001-02 until 2006-07, then began to falter before this past season's club went a franchise-worst 12-70.
The Sixers were 27-55 this past season and will start the 2010-11 campaign with a new coach in Doug Collins.
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Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.