Pat Williams, a championship-winning Sixers general manager and co-founder of the Orlando Magic, died Wednesday at 84 years old, the Magic announced.
According to the organization’s press release, Williams “died peacefully … surrounded by family” and “the cause of death was complications from viral pneumonia.”
“There is no Orlando Magic without Pat Williams,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a league release. “He was held in such high regard in the basketball community and was a friend to me and so many generations of league executives. Pat was never at a loss for a kind and supportive word and always brought great enthusiasm, energy and optimism to everything he did throughout his more than 50 years in the NBA.
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“We express our heartfelt condolences to Pat’s wife, Ruth, their family and the entire Magic organization.”
Born in Philadelphia and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, Williams had an extraordinarily colorful, decorated career in professional sports. He served as general manager of the Bulls, Hawks, Sixers and Magic, a franchise he founded with Jimmy Hewitt. In 2012, he received the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
His Sixers teams reached the 1977, 1980 and 1982 NBA Finals. With Moses Malone on board, they won it all in 1983. Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey called Williams “one of the all-time great general managers” in a tweet Wednesday night.
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Williams was on hand in 2023 for the 40th anniversary celebration of the ’82-83 Sixers.
Before breaking into basketball, Williams caught at Wake Forest and played two seasons for the Miami Marlins, who were then the Philadelphia Phillies’ affiliate in the Florida State League. (Williams happened to be friends growing up with Ruly Carpenter, the Phillies’ owner and president from 1972 to 1981.)
Williams transitioned from Marlins player to the team's business manager. He leaned on lessons from always-promoting, open-to-anything MLB owner Bill Veeck.
“I drove up and Bill was sitting there on his porch reading a book,” Williams told The Sports Business Journal in 2013 of his first meeting with Veeck. “His shirt was off and so was his [prosthetic wooden] leg and he greeted me warmly. I left five hours later and it was the start of a 25-year friendship.”
Williams became president of the Spartanburg Phillies and was named The Sporting News’ Minor League Executive of the Year in 1967. He then joined the Sixers as the organization's business manager, though that stint didn’t last long because Williams accepted the Bulls’ GM job at 29 years old. Former Sixers star Chet Walker helped Chicago win at least 50 games in each of Williams' last three seasons.
When he came back to Philadelphia, Williams built a contender around superstar Julius Erving and made an enduring, wide-ranging impact with the franchise.
Williams wanted a Sixers theme song and Randy Childress, Terry Rocap and Joe Sherwood composed “Here Come the Sixers,” which fans enjoy hearing after every home victory.
There was much to Williams beyond the songs and the stars signed. The Magic’s release notes he authored “over 100 books” and “completed 58 marathons from 1996-2011, including the Boston Marathon 13 times.”