Sayonara, Sam

The Process is over.

After not even three seasons as general manager and president of basketball operations, Sam Hinkie stepped down via an interesting 13-page resignation letter. The reason he stepped down was that he was stripped of a great deal of decision-making power, by boss "advisor" Jerry Colangelo and was about to be stripped of a whole lot more. 

With Hinkie and his radical approach to team building, there were always going to be detractors and supporters. As with his legacy, that has two sides as well. On one hand, under the Hinkie-administration (sounds like he was a president), his team sported a pitiful record of 47-195, wasn't even two years away from being two years away toward a competent team, and had used its lottery picks on four consecutive big men, three of which have already misbehaved in concerning ways, who couldn't play together in today's NBA. Oh, and two of those picks have not played a second in a 76ers uniform. 

On the other side of the scale though, Hinkie had amassed a war chest of draft assets that would even make the great Danny Ainge blush. He had never lost a trade. He had been the forefront of the teams' forward thinking approach by setting up a new, state-of-the-art practice facility as well as having each players' shot tracked, monitored, and put through the Hinkie-3000 for a final analysis on how to perfect themselves. Ok, the Hinkie-3000 is not a real thing, but the point is, players were exposed to technology that would benefit their in-game performances.

Sam Hinkie had an ingenious plan; to tank, tank and tank some more so his team would receive high draft picks, draft stars with those picks, then become a super team. Well, that is way easier said than done. The problem is there certainly were some misfires along the way on Hinkie's behalf, and that ultimately led to his resignation.

The NBA may seem simple from the outside, but from the inside it must be hectic. There are owners, players, coaches, opposing general managers, agents and fans to appease. One of them will always be unhappy in this world, but Hinkie had probably angered more than half through his lack of communication with everyone around him, as well as his insistence to not add a veteran just to teach these kids how to become professionals. 

A saying that perfectly epitomizes Hinkie's time with the 76ers is that, "the chickens had come to roost." He couldn't keep going to the lottery every year. He couldn't keep drafting injured or ill-fitting players. He couldn't keep relying that his owners would stomach all this losing and criticism. In the end, well, the chickens had come to roost.

Everyone can disagree on whether Hinkie was good or bad, but no one can disagree that this whole saga has not been fun as heck to discuss.