The Celtics have a chance to slay a dragon.
Ten years ago today, Sam Hinkie was introduced as team President and General Manager. He came over from the Houston Rockets, and embarked on an audacious plan to rebuild the Philadelphia 76ers through outright, blatant tanking for as many chances at top picks as he could get.
It became known as “the process,” and it netted 47 wins combined over three years, culminating in a 10-win 2016 season that saw the NBA get involved, Hinkie step down and the Sixers get a little less extreme about chasing No. 1 picks.
It also got them Joel Embiid, who along the way declared, when talking about Hinkie’s process, that “I am the process,” giving himself a nickname that has stuck, and us a reminder that he’s the final, and most important remnant of the strategy.
Personally, I hated the process. I thought it was embarrassing to willingly run a team so hard into the ground that fans would have to live through three years of no better than 18 wins. Don’t get me wrong, I understood it; I got that (a) teams had to bottom out rebuild and (b) the fastest way to rebuild was with a number one pick. I just felt like Hinkie took the humanity out of things, and that hurt everyone involved.
I find this particular quote humorous.
"His valuable insight regarding players and the NBA, whether building around Yao Ming or taking the multiple strategic steps necessary to acquire James Harden, has provided the Rockets with an unmatched advantage over the years," Daryl Morey said at the time. "Philadelphia will realize over time what an important acquisition they have made."
Morey was running the Rockets at the time. Hinkie worked for him. Now Morey, Harden, and a different uniquely talented, oft-injured Hall of Fame big man are looking to finish the job Hinkie started.
A Celtics win can end this madness once and for all. It can put a nice, neat, 10-year bow on the process, burying it where it belongs: at the feet of a rival who did things the right way through drafts and trades and not subjecting its fans to the worst basketball in NBA history.
One might argue that Hinkie never had a chance to finish what he started; that the league’s intervention and the subsequent scandal where his successor Bryan Colangelo attacked players on social media using fake accounts derailed the whole thing. Some might say Hinkie’s Sixers might have been much different.
I say who cares? Hinkie’s hubris and maniacal devotion to his precious process brought him too close to the sun. He cost the NBA business money and conglomerates of billionaires don’t take kindly to their bottom line being affected by bottoming out. Hinkie never took that into account, and it cost him his job and his experiment.
Embiid is the sole remnant of Hinkie’s process. He’s where Hinkie can hang his hat and say ‘see, if I could only finish my plan, I could have shown you how to build through drafted stars.’
Boston has no choice but to put that notion to bed; to announce to the world that the best this process could ever do was win a first-round series. A win in Game 7 today could be the death knell for a process on its last legs, but also with its best chance.
You see, this game is the most important game of Sam Hinkie’s life.
A Sixers win and they face the Cinderella Miami Heat, surely due to turn into a pumpkin at some point. Even if they don’t, a Sixers effort that mirrors what they’ve given against Boston should send them to the NBA Finals. There, they match up well with two teams with incredible big men. Hinkie’s precious Embiid could be the difference against either team. Philly would surely be the favorite. They could win.
And if they do, Hinkie could be vindicated forever. He could strut and crow that even at partial completion, the process was successful because it got the one major star that won the team a championship. We would be inundated with think pieces about the process and its success. Hinkie might even be at the parade.
That can’t happen.
If nothing else, the Celtics must be dragon-slayers today. They must destroy the process once and for all. They must win so Harden can throw his hands up, declare the city of Philadelphia no fun and head back to Houston where he can finish his basketball life among his favorite postgame establishments. They must win so Sixers fans get fed up with another Doc Rivers loss after taking a 3-2 lead, starting the, ahem, process of finding another new coach. They must win so Morey has to answer questions about trades that could have been sure things other than rentals or swings and misses.
They must win so Embiid looks around after 10 years and wonders if he’s been wasting his time with this whole process thing. He’s 29 now, but he’s already missed two seasons and, at his size, there's no guarantee another freak injury isn’t around the corner. It’s a wonder he’s been able to survive this one as well as he has.
Yeah, I could rah rah my way through this piece and say “do it for Boston” or “do it for Al Horford” or even “do it for Bill Russell because the man’s number is on the damn floor show it and him some respect and beat Philadelphia in a Game 7 because he will haunt your dreams forever if you don’t.”
But this is more important (okay, maybe not more important than the Russell thing. Come on guys. Don’t disrespect his legacy by losing to the Sixers at home in a Game 7). This is for the NBA as a whole. This is for everyone.
Slay the process today. End it for good. Let the only ink spilled in Hinkie’s name be in obituaries for his beloved plan.
The process must die today.