Despite NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s denials, many people believe he pressured the 76ers into hiring Jerry Colangelo/forcing out Sam Hinkie.
Among those people: Philadelphia star Joel Embiid.
Hinkie’s multi-year tanking plan became known as “The Process.” After Hinkie left the 76ers, Embiid nicknamed himself "The Process.”
Embiid on “The Draymond Green Show":
He was basically forced out by – I don’t want to say names, but you know I’m outspoken, so I’ll say it – by the NBA. I always say I don’t know who, but I think that’s what it was. And then that pissed me off, because I felt like, yeah, sure, there was a lot of losing, which I wasn’t part of because that was before I started playing. But I knew that eventually, once I started playing, it was going to change, which it did. So, they basically forced him out, and I didn’t like it.
Around that time, the league did not like The Process, because it was a bunch of losing. They say it was tanking, that we’re losing on purpose.
So, I got pissed off because they ran Sam Hinkie out of town, and I knew that they didn’t like The Process, all the losing stuff. Then, I was like, “You know what? I’m going to piss some people off.” Even around the team, there was a bunch of people that didn’t like that word. I remember – I won’t say names – but I used to get calls about, “Can you please tell Joel not to mention ‘The Process’ name? We’re trying to move on from it.” I was like, “Watch this.” So, that’s why I started pushing the agenda about, you know what, I’m going to support my mans, because he drafted me. Coming out of college, before I got drafted, he believed in me. I was hurt, but he still believed in me. So, I was like, you know what, I’m going to support him.
Embiid might have a genuine desire to support Hinkie. The star center blamed himself for Hinkie losing his job.
But Embiid is also supporting his own desire to troll – whatever side that means taking.
When Embiid talks about people around the team who disliked the term “Process,” it’s hard not to think of Bryan Colangelo, Jerry Colangelo’s son and Hinkie’s successor. Bryan Colangelo trashed the 76ers’ losing culture under Hinkie.
Bryan Colangelo was later connected to burner Twitter accounts that revealed sensitive team information and slammed Embiid.
No wonder Embiid thinks conspiratorially about the front office.
