Sinking Sacramento Send Sixers Skyward

Karl Klobbers Sixers Strategy

Growing players to NBA leadership roles requires tremendous patience, patience that current coach George Karl seemingly does not have much time for.  You see, he is not unfamiliar to Philadelphia 76ers fans.  It was his sharply pointed comments about the Philadelphia 76er rebuild process as part of ESPN’s Front Office panel where George Karl burned any sympathetic bridges to anyone who believes that #TrustTheProcess has any likelihood of success.  His was the voice of any angry coach, whose long term outlook was only as far as one NBA season.  Unfortunately, he had an open microphone at his disposal when he felt a need to obliterate the 76ers plan.

"What is happening in Philadelphia should not be called ‘tanking’; rather, it should be called ‘destruction.’ The Sixers are at least three to five years away from even being a respectful — respectful — NBA roster. They are worse than they were at the end of last year. Three of the five starters barely played last season. I understand building around talent, but people have to understand that sometimes young players just don’t develop. You put all your eggs in that basket, but if the kids don’t pan out, you’re sunk. I think this roster has such a low level of talent they’ll be hard-pressed to win an NBA game. To put this team through another season of turmoil will be devastating. What is being built in Philadelphia is not the development of young players, but instead a culture of losing. – George Karl"

The timing of this round table discussion was 2014, and was immediately following the delayed realization of drafting both Dario Saric and Joel Embiid. To the sixth most winningnest coach in the NBA, the strategy of the Philadelphia 76ers – delaying the benefit – was beyond his scope of understanding, and he called the organization out as harshly as any one person could on nationally televised media.  Following the tirade, he was given the reigns of the Sacramento Kings to face that Sixer team that was “hard-pressed to win an NBA game”.

So it came with sweet poetic justice that the team reminded Karl of his words when the Sixers beat George Karl and the Sacramento Kings 114-107 in March 2015:

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