Heading into the new year with a single victory isn’t something that we considered possible in a league as talented and competitive as the NBA. It is a recent phenomenon that NBA teams have had extremely bad records. In fact, 18 of the 50 worst NBA teams, categorized by record and win percentage, have occurred after the year 1999. This means that 36 percent of the NBA’s worst records have come only in the last 15 seasons. For a league that has a history dating back to the merger in 1946, that is a statistical head-scratcher.
With that being said, the Philadelphia 76ers are the most unfortunate team in the modern NBA.
Never in the history of the league has team leadership chosen to tank multiple seasons as blatantly as 76ers GM Sam Hinkie has. Over the past three seasons, Hinkie has manufactured teams that have won a combined 38 games to date, which is particularly sad considering that they won 34 games in 2012-2013 season. Keep in mind that he has done this, despite having an amazing player developer as Head Coach in Brett Brown and commendable progress made from rising players such as Michael Carter-Williams (the 2014 Rookie of the Year), Nerlens Noel, Robert Covington, and Jahlil Okafor (not to mention the seeming development of Joel Embiid and Tony Wroten, both of which are attempting to return from injuries). It takes a special kind of tanking plan to convince fans that trading the R.O.Y was a good idea for the team’s future as well. Even the ownership became wary of the constant losing that has been taking place.
Enter Jerry Colangelo.
When the commissioner of the NBA, Adam Silver, and the 76ers owner, Josh Harris “plead” for your assistance, who would expect him to say no? Colangelo was given the chance to work for the 76ers on his own terms at his own availability with an excellent amount of power with the organization. The bigger question, however, is WHY the COMMISSIONER of the league got involved in the direct hiring of a team official. Inexperienced owners, a misguided GM, a talent-lacking team, and collective ignorance comes to mind, but many teams have gone through bad years (although not as bad as the last few for this team). The real reason is very clear and obvious.
It’s all about the money Lebowski! (bonus points if you caught the reference)
Rumors, which we now know to be true, began to circle concerning the 76ers obvious “tanking” strategy. At first, the fact that the 76ers were tanking games was an annoying fact that other teams viewed as strange and clearly noticeable but Philadelphia is so bad that other teams are finding it difficult to sell out arenas when the 76ers come to town. It is becoming more difficult to create hype around your team when you can book 2-4 solid victories over a team that is devoid of talent as a collective group. It is becoming increasingly difficult to make your team take all other NBA teams seriously when the 76ers play like a newly formed Division II team.
Greg Popovich’s Spurs team decided to rest Time Duncan and Kawhi Leonard in a contest between the teams and still won the game by a ridiculous 51 points. Even Popovich himself had to speak out on the what the 76ers are doing to his former protege, Brett Brown, when he said the following after prompted about Brown’s run with the team.
“He’s the most positive person that I know. I honestly don’t know who else could be in Philadelphia doing what he’s doing. I couldn’t do it. I’d last a month. Two years ago, I mean. A month. Not in the third year.”
Popovich followed up his glowing endorsement of Brown with this statement.
“The fact that they’re not as skilled as players on some other teams is irrelevant. Work ethic is a tribute to their character and Brett’s ability to keep them fighting for a standard and trying to progress. I think he’s incredible. I don’t say that because I’m trying to make him look good or because he’s my buddy or anything like that. It’s really true. They’re lucky to have him there.”
It is unmistakable that Brett Brown is an invaluable asset to this team but it is also undeniable that Sam Hinkie needed someone like a Jerry Colangelo to nudge this team in the correct direction. All of this is a clear sign that the 76ers have lacked a good direction before Colangelo thus making them pretty unfortunate to say the least.
Now let’s hope the 76ers win enough games to remember that the objective of playing games are to win them.
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