The Inevitable Martyrdom Of Sam Hinkie

He Has To Go!

We may never learn the true and total tale of what happened with the Philadelphia 76ers organization, but we do know this:

The NBA was unhappy with the prolonged losing of the Philadelphia 76ers.  So unhappy because, quite frankly, it was a sore spot with the NBA commissioner that media loved to poke at.

"“Am I a fan of that strategy? Put it this way: No. But does that mean it’s not acceptable under league rules? It doesn’t.” – Adam Silver"

I don’t think it’s any great leap of faith to say that the NBA commissioner carries a great deal of weight with the owners of each team.  When the 2015-2016 season began, the Philadelphia 76ers limped into the season with a series of injuries which forced the team to seek emergency relief and bring on a 16th man.   With a roster already unfamiliar to one another, and too young to be expected to generate much success, the early injuries simply shunted any hope of showing up in the win column.

But it’s likely that the discipline issues of rookie center Jahlil Okafor off the “yeah, that’s a shame” into the “what can we do?” from the Philadelphia 76ers ownership.   If Adam Silver needed the right moment to place a corrective plan into effect, that was the opening he needed. He responded to rumors that he was directly seeking a change of direction in the Sixers organization.

"Those reports are not correct,” Silver said. “Josh Harris, who’s the principal owner of the 76ers, decided on his own that he needed to change course. He and I had many conversations along the way about the utility of the strategy that he was following. And he came to the conclusion once this season began, and he saw how his team was performing on the floor, that he needed to change his strategy.”"

What resulted from that discussion is that Silver talked to Jerry Colangelo to change direction.  The official story became “adding basketball voices to the room.”  But the true goal was simply to remove one voice, one person, from the room: Sam Hinkie’s .  After the fact, Silver was more than happy to share more details:

"“His (Jerry Colangelo’s) getting directly involved with the 76ers was in part due to my reaching out to Jerry,” Silver said. “Not because it was necessarily my idea that the 76ers needed an adviser. But once Josh Harris, the principal governor of the 76ers, said he would like to have a sounding board, someone with league experience, I was the one who connected him with Jerry Colangelo. I would say I feel a little bit of an obligation to defend Jerry here, because he was not looking for that opportunity.”"

And so, begrudgingly, Adam Silver was brought into the situation, and begrudgingly persuaded Jerry Colangelo to take over the navigation for the team. But it gets better:

"“Bryan Colangelo, who of course has ultimately ended up as president of basketball operations for the 76ers, was someone at the time that Josh excluded as a possibility because it was clear that Bryan was looking for a full-time job as the head of basketball for one of our teams,” Silver said. “So in essence, the 76ers ended up with Jerry because Bryan was not an option at the time.”"

So the path is Josh Harris dragged Adam Silver in, who persuaded Jerry Colangelo to get involved, because his son Bryan Colangelo was not interested in the Philadelphia 76ers either.  Have you ever found yourselves talking to your children about a misdeed, and they were all innocent and confessed that somebody else made them do it?  Yeah… this evolving story seems to have a lot of similarities to that… doesn’t it?

Next: Just Don't Screw It Up!