{"id":418631,"date":"2025-10-04T05:13:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T05:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/418631\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T05:13:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T05:13:15","slug":"suns-hiring-ed-stefanski-father-of-browns-coach-kevin-stefanski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/418631\/","title":{"rendered":"Suns hiring Ed Stefanski, father of Browns coach Kevin Stefanski"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-122166\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/stefanski1003.jpg\" alt=\"Ed Stefanski, Suns, NBA, 76ers\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\"  \/>NBAE\/Getty<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"138\" data-end=\"195\">The Phoenix\u2013Cleveland connection is alive and well.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"197\" data-end=\"463\">Not long after the Suns hired former Cavaliers assistant Jordan Ott as <a href=\"https:\/\/hoopswire.com\/new-suns-coach-jordan-ott-ive-earned-the-right-to-be-here\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">their new head coach<\/a>, they added longtime NBA executive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/stefaed01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=hoopswire.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-10-04_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ed Stefanski<\/a> to the front office. Cleveland fans will recognize that name \u2014 as Ed is the father of Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"465\" data-end=\"608\">Per <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TheSteinLine\/status\/1974280585817567648\" rel=\"nofollow\">Marc Stein of The Stein Line<\/a>, Ed joins Phoenix as a front office adviser.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"610\" data-end=\"704\">And make no mistake, Ed\u2019s r\u00e9sum\u00e9 in basketball is extensive. Far longer than Kevin\u2019s NFL run, in fact.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"755\" data-end=\"1018\">A 10th-round pick by the 76ers in 1976, Stefanski made his mark as an executive rather than a player. He climbed the ranks with the Nets from 1999\u20132007, serving as director of scouting, senior VP of basketball ops, and eventually general manager.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1020\" data-end=\"1390\">From there, he spent four years running the 76ers, then moved north to serve as executive VP of basketball operations for the Raptors from 2011\u20132013.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1020\" data-end=\"1390\">After a stint in the Grizzlies\u2019 front office, Stefanski was named senior adviser to the Pistons in 2018, where he helped oversee basketball operations through multiple regime changes.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1392\" data-end=\"1529\">In 2020, he even received a third-place vote for NBA Executive of the Year, a nod to his longevity and influence around the league.<\/p>\n<p>While Ed built front offices, Kevin Stefanski turned to football. Hired in January 2020, he led the Browns to their first playoff berth since 2002 during his debut season \u2014 earning NFL Coach of the Year honors after an 11\u20135 campaign.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1883\" data-end=\"2143\">Under his watch, the Browns have delivered multiple winning seasons and playoff appearances for the first time since the Marty Schottenheimer era. He picked up a second Coach of the Year award in 2023 before signing a contract extension the following summer.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1883\" data-end=\"2143\">But it\u2019s been a real struggle lately, as the Browns slogged through a 3-14 season last year. They\u2019re also just 1-3 entering Sunday\u2019s game against the Vikings in London.<\/p>\n<p>Looking for the latest NBA Insider News &amp; Rumors?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Be sure to follow <a style=\"color: #ff6a14;\" href=\"https:\/\/hoopswire.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hoops Wire<\/a> on <a style=\"color: #ff6a14;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wirehoops\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">TWITTER<\/a>\u00a0and <a style=\"color: #ff6a14;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hoopswire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FACEBOOK<\/a>\u00a0for breaking NBA News and Rumors for all 30 teams!<\/p>\n<p>        <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NBAE\/Getty The Phoenix\u2013Cleveland connection is alive and well. Not long after the Suns hired former Cavaliers assistant Jordan&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,85,54,2337,54208,7,71432,38038,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-418631","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-browns","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-browns","11":"tag-clevelandbrowns","12":"tag-ed-stefanski","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-jordan-ott","15":"tag-nba-rumors-news","16":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115314190278708780","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}