Believe it or not, the Philadelphia 76ers were once a proud NBA franchise.
They’ve won three championships and nine conference titles in their 69-year history. They’ve seen all-time greats like Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Wilt Chamberlain, Charles Barkley and Allen Iverson suit up in the white, blue and red. And yet, behind general manager Sam Hinkie’s leadership, they’ve become the NBA’s biggest and most tired joke.
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At first, the “rebuilding” plan was almost funny. Critics were quick to voice their displeasure after the 2012-13 season when Hinkie broke down a Sixers car that had driven to the playoffs the season before and sold the spare parts piece by piece.
All that was left in Philadelphia after that was scrap metal, and it’s been the case ever since.
In the span of one year, Hinkie dealt away the core pieces of a playoff team to stockpile future draft picks like some Russian war lord gathering nuclear warheads during the Cold War era.
For a more kid-friendly analogy, Hinkie was striving to be like “Jack and the Beanstalk,” trading his dried up old cow for magic beans of potential. But what happens if those beans never grow into anything special? And how long are we supposed to wait and trust that they will?
In order to answer those questions, we need to go through Hinkie’s decision-making step by step and determine if there’s any logic to this rebuilding process … or if he’s just spinning his wheels as the laughingstock of the league continues to stall and overheat.
Next: The Initial Tanking Timeline