Trust The Process

Patience has been key for Joel Embiid, the NBAs next superstar

- Keith Gordon

Philadelphia sports fans are notorious for their intensity. After all, they famously pelted Santa Claus with snowballs when things weren’t going well for their Eagles. So it wasn’t likely to be an easy sell for the Philadelphia 76ers’ then general manager Sam Hinkie when, before the 2013-2014 season, he began a strategy to build a championship-caliber team in the City of Brotherly Love. His solution? Be as bad as possible—as in, terrible—for a long time, on purpose.

The NBA is considered different from other professional sports leagues in the glacial pace at which teams improve or get worse. NFL, NHL, and MLB franchises all require time to rebuild a team in need of change, but thanks to the large, guaranteed contracts prevalent in the NBA, and the complex salary cap in place, for some teams it can take years or even a decade to get out from under bad deals and accumulate the talent needed to win in the league. It’s also arguably tougher to sign a free agent in a city like Milwaukee or Philadelphia, which lacks the draw of a Los Angeles or Miami. Sam Hinkie and the 76ers decided to stop ignoring these facts and dive in headfirst, conventional basketball wisdom be damned.

Hinkie’s strategy of getting high draft picks and avoiding committing money to veteran players meant it was going to be a rough few seasons. Former Sixers guard Tony Wroten was credited with dubbing it the Process. But a funny thing happened when that process was implemented: Philly fans understood. There were horrific seasons, and for the next three years the team failed to reach 20 wins per season. But Sixers fans’ patience and willingness to see the big picture is what brought us the next NBA superstar and household name.