The Sixer Sense
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Bryan Colangelo: A worse media presence for 76ers than Sam Hinkie

By Rusty Gorelick

PHILADELPHIA, PA - JANUARY 24: General Manager Bryan Colangelo of the Philadelphia 76ers watches the game in the first quarter against the Chicago Bulls at the Wells Fargo Center on January 24, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The 76ers defeated the Bulls 115-101. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - JANUARY 24: General Manager Bryan Colangelo of the Philadelphia 76ers watches the game in the first quarter against the Chicago Bulls at the Wells Fargo Center on January 24, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The 76ers defeated the Bulls 115-101. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /
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Sam Hinkie made Brett Brown’s job hard because of his lack of communication with the Philadelphia 76ers media. Somehow, Bryan Colangelo has exceeded Hinkie’s shyness.

It’s still unclear whether or not Bryan Colangelo actually wanted to become the general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver put Colangelo’s dad, Jerry, in charge when he deemed the Sixers as an embarrassment to the league in the middle of The Process, and Jerry left the team in the spring of 2016, leaving his son in charge.

Colangelo did some good things for the Sixers: he drafted Ben Simmons first overall in 2016 and traded for the first overall pick in 2017 to draft Markelle Fultz. The jury is still out on the Fultz deal since the rookie has played four games and has no jump shot, and one of the bad things Colangelo did has to do with Fultz.

In one of the few times the 2007 NBA Executive of the Year spoke to the media this season, he said that his 19-year-old rookie’s range is “in the paint“. He and Brett Brown constantly contradict each other in the media, as the coach told reporters that Fultz wasn’t doing conditioning drills while Colangelo said that was not the case.

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This whole situation is basically an episode of Black Mirror or a passage from 1984, and the 52-year-old is the main reason for it. He carries on the lack of transparency trend set in place by Sam Hinkie, but there’s even less transparency under young Colangelo’s administration.

At least Hinkie let us know what was up with Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. Maybe Colangelo does not want the rest of the league to know Fultz has a mental block. The least the ex-Suns executive could do is get on the same page as his head coach.

To further prove how incompetent Colangelo is, he had not spoken to the media since December. He left his head coach out to dry for almost two months. Hinkie did that for most of his tenure, and Adam Silver made Jerry Colangelo take over the team to prevent that from happening.

Colangelo has made some good transactions, but Hinkie’s dealings made that possible in the first place. The Cornell alumnus’ first trade as Sixers’ President of Basketball Operations was the Nerlens Noel–Justin Anderson deal, and he did not get an ideal return for the sixth-overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft.

Next: 2018 NBA Draft Big Board 5.0

The main decision-maker in the franchise simply makes it look incompetent. He needs to be more transparent and straightforward with the media and his staff so the rest of the league respects the Philadelphia 76ers again. Even without Fultz, the Sixers are well on their way to making the playoffs, and the front offices of the best teams in the league conduct themselves much better than Bryan Colangelo has.