Signature Moments

The Philadelphia 76ers won 28 games in the 2016–17 NBA season. By the end of the following season, star players Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons had led the team to nearly twice as many victories (52) and into the second round of the NBA playoffs.

Desron Dorset couldn’t be happier about it.

As the Sixers’ vice president of business development, Dorset helped advance the organization’s business interests across several losing seasons.

So, just like Simmons and Embiid, Dorset has bought into the team’s motto: “Trust the process.” The phrase has become the Sixers’ mantra for all works in progress.

Since joining the program’s front office in 2014, Dorset has secured traditional sponsorships and partnerships and also developed deals for creative collaborations. One such venture is the Sixers Innovation Lab Crafted by Kimball, an incubator for early-stage startups housed in the Sixers’ headquarters and training facility in Camden, N.J.

Dorset also oversees the franchise’s merchandising strategy, including relation- ships with NBA licensees like Nike, and leads sponsorship and tenant acquisitions for the 76ers Fieldhouse — an elite youth training facility that will soon house the Sixers’ G League team, the Delaware Blue Coats, in Wilmington, Del.

Now that the Sixers have made the NBA playoffs for the first time since 2012, Dorset’s job has gotten a lot better.

“I always tell people we have the easy job — especially once the guys on the court are playing well and representing the brand,” he said. “It’s just up to us to accentuate it.”

Just a year into his thirties, Dorset has been named to Georgia State’s 40 Under 40 class of 2018. It’s a group of the university’s most influential and innovative alumni under 40 years of age.

When asked what he loves most about his job, Dorset cites Philadelphia’s passionate fan base and the chance he’s had to inspire community youth.

His office’s outreach efforts include basketball camps and the Sixers Youth Foundation, a program committed to keeping children 14 years old and younger on successful paths.

“Even if it’s as simple as giving a kid his first Sixers T-shirt or introducing him to his favorite Sixers player, those moments, which I call ‘signature moments,’ really make me think we’re doing something special here,” he said.

One of those signature moments materialized amid a Sixers losing streak, when the team took on their slogan. But Dorset says “Trust the process” was never a marketing strategy.

“It’s actually not our marketing tagline by any means,” he said. “For us, it’s something that we believe belongs to the fans. Our actual marketing tagline is, ‘Welcome to the moment.’

“I think people have been waiting for this moment awhile.”

Photo courtesy of the Philadelphia 76ers