Tonight is the night Philadelphia 76ers fans have been waiting for. It is the culmination of three years of a process that divided the Sixers fan base into two factions: the believers and the non-believers.
Regardless of the actual process that took place in the Sixers front office for the last three years, there has always been the hope for one big pay off. Tonight could possibly be the franchise altering moment where the Sixers could get two top-5 draft picks, their own and the Lakers pick if it falls outside of the top-3 spots. Who the Sixers will take is unknown, but the general consensus is it will either be Duke’s Brandon Ingram or Ben Simmons of LSU.
I wish that was the focus of this column.
I wish I were about to get into a heated debate between Ingram and Simmons, and which player fits the Sixers best. (HINT HINT: Ingram. INGRAM!)
… but I can’t do that.
Once again, this columnist has to discuss something that a “columnist” said about the Sixers and former GM Sam Hinkie. It’s possible that there’s a shortage of hot-takes since Hinkie resigned as general manager of the team over a month ago. You would think that with new GM Bryan Colangelo, those hot-take artists would have something to talk about since Colangelo seems to be much better at dealing with the media than Hinkie.
Say what you want about Hinkie, the Process, or what the Sixers have done in the last three years, but there are certain things that should never be said.
“With all due respect to the PSU child abuse deniers, there is no grating fan base than the clinging coterie of Sam Hinkie True Believers.”
It is never … ever … EVER acceptable to relate to anyone in that fashion. That is, however, how Metro columnist and Saint Joseph’s University professor Glen Macnow decided to lead off his column yesterday. The original first lines were removed, but thanks to Jim Adair at Crossing Broad and others, the original lines remain in internet history forever.
Cool pic.twitter.com/fWd3LjrAAg
— Jim Adair (@jimadair3) May 16, 2016
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Say what you want about the “Sam Hinkie True Believers” (the club where I am still a card carrying member), but there are limits to how far we’ll go when defending what Hinkie did with the Sixers under his three year leadership as general manager.
People who followed Hinkie and PSU child abuse deniers are so far away from the same universe that it’s unfathomable. If Hinkie True Believers are on planet Earth, the PSU deniers are on the planet Romulous. I use Romulous here because the two are so far separated, I had to choose a planet that doesn’t even exist outside the Star Trek universe.
Macnow goes on to spit old rhetoric that has been refuted time and time again, saying the Sixers three year “Tank-a-thon” was an affront to paying fans and ethics. For the most part, fans were on board with the plan.
Old school basketball fans like Macnow and Tony Bruno (who referred to Hinkie True Believers as “strapezoids,” a word I’m still struggling with a definition for) were angered by the process. Maybe the process was an affront to ethics, but common ethics and decorum would prevent any human being from making a parallel between a section of a fan base dedicated to that idea and the fan base of a university that denies the actions of a known sex offender. (Truth be told, Mr. Macnow, those fans deny Paterno’s claim he had no knowledge.)
Someone who claims to be a champion of ethics doesn’t make that comparison. Someone who has written children’s books (as Macnow has) definitely doesn’t do that. After he was shamed and called out on Twitter like he should have been, the original headline of the column was changed, and Macnow issued an apology.
The lede on my @MetroPhilly Sixers column was ill-conceived and inappropriate. I have changed it. I apologize for the foolish comparison.
— Glen Macnow (@RealGlenMacnow) May 16, 2016
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I won’t completely eviscerate Macnow because he does make a valid point in parts of the column. When he calls out Sixers fans who troll him on Twitter saying things like “Don’t let us catch you jumping on the bandwagon” and other phrases, he is right when he says he’s allowed to because “It’s not your (Hinkie Believers) team. It’s ours — as in all fans.”
That part is true, but it’s important for me to point out at the end of your column.
“The door has re-opened, everyone. We’ve got a basketball team again.”
No, Glen. We always had a basketball team. You just chose to ignore it for three years. You won’t be faulted for it, but you have to expect some kind of blow back from being a fair weather fan, especially in THIS town.
No matter what, the Sixers are OUR team, but it’s a two-way street. Hinkie Believers shouldn’t say things like that, and Hinkie Non-Believers shouldn’t continue to ostracize us, either.
Since Hinkie stepped down, every columnist from Marcus Hayes to John Smallwood, and everyone in between has continued to push the “Thank God he’s gone” rhetoric. Hinkie is gone, guys. He was a horse that was drug out in the street and shot by people like you and folks within the NBA. You guys won, yet you continue to figuratively beat a dead horse.
You won.
Hinkie is gone.
Move on to something else.
The “immorality”, as Macnow pointed out in his column, of the Hinkie Process is over, and the Sixers will begin to reap benefits tonight with their possible two top-5 picks and their oodles of cash in free agency. Let’s keep it a hunnit, too. Who was this process “immoral” to? Old school guys like yourselves and everyone else? The NBA?
If Colangelo Corp fails to cash in on what they inherited, THAT’S immoral. It would be a giant waste of time, and a smack in the face of people who hung in there for three years because something different was happening. Different does not mean immoral. Who started that rumor?
It all begins tonight. Tonight is the night that we all come back in to the fold, and the olive branch should be extended on both sides. This is just like the GOP Presidential Race. Paul Ryan and Donald Trump may hate each other, but at the end of the day, they’re on the same team. Hinkie Believers and non may dislike each other, but we all support the same team — the Sixers.
The 10-9-8-Seventy Sixers.
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