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| Sixers GM San Hinkie |
jmcmullen@phanaticmag.com
PHILADELPHIA - Patience is often a virtue but it's rarely a plan.
Luck is even less of one.
Sometimes I feel like a lone voice in a hurricane when I say losing isn't the answer in the NBA.
It's become conventional wisdom in the league that you "have to get bad to get good," even among the people who should know better, the NBA's powerbrokers like Sam Hinkie.
Donnie Walsh, a pretty good basketball mind who ran things in both a small market (Indiana) and the biggest of them all (New York), hated that kind of thinking, once calling the NBA Draft Lottery "a convention of losers."
Walsh, a competitive guy, always hated being in North Jersey (now Times Square) for the lottery because it meant he wasn't doing his job, and instead of basking in the excitement of sold out arenas for playoff games, it was all about a television studio and a bunch of ping-pong balls.
Walsh was right -- nothing has been more aptly named than the NBA Draft Lottery. Just like some ham-and-egger who spent the last of his paycheck on a Mega- Millions ticket, bad NBA teams gather, bring lucky trinkets or in the case of Dan Gilbert, his neurofibromatosis-afflicted nephew, and hope things turn out for the best.
Sure a cognizant, well-designed plan, implemented over a number of years by well-respected basketball people is probably a better option than hoping your number comes up but that takes guts and most people would rather wait for the next Tim Duncan or LeBron James.
Enter Hinkie, the Sixers new general manager.
Andrew Wiggins is supposed to be that next big thing and will likely be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft. He is the object of Hinkie's (and everyone else's) affection and why the neophyte basketball chief is dismantling the Sixers, turning them into a glorified NBA Development League team.
In other words Hinkie is preaching patience to you while dangling the Powerball ticket (luck).
Supporters point toward San Antonio, which did tank back in the day and got Duncan, subsequently earning four rings and nearly a fifth in 2012-13. But, for every Spurs success story there are far more Charlotte Bobcats-, Minnesota Timberwolves- and Washington Wizards-like failures, teams that seem to pick in the lottery year in and year out and end up nowhere.
Remember when Jerry Krause broke up the Jordan-era Bulls, thinking he would just rebuild because everyone would want to play in Chicago? The Bulls had the worst six-year span in franchise history before finally getting their heads above sea-level again.
And how about our own Sixers playing bridesmaid at No. 2 over the years. Shawn Bradley, Keith Van Horn and Evan Turner anyone.
You want more? The last No. 1 overall pick to actually win an NBA championship is James, who was taken in 2003 and of course didn't even win it with the Cavaliers. Then you have to go back to Duncan in 1997 and ex-Sixer Glenn Robinson two years earlier, who won one as a afterthought on the Spurs late in his career. That's three in 20 years and just one who actually earned it for the club who drafted him.
Quick math says even if the Sixers get Wiggins and he turns out to be the cat's pajamas, he has about a five percent chance of actually winning a title in Philly.
The real answer for the Sixers is developing something they have never really had, a strong organization from top to bottom.
Before the Phillies enjoyed the cash cow known as Citizens Bank Park Dave Montgomery once called the organization a "small-market team," and rightfully got killed for it. Even in the days of the Vet the Phils were never a small-market team, they just had a small-market mentality.
When Josh Harris bought the 76ers he and Adam Aron ordered their public relations department to play up the team's history, a smart decision because Philly was once one of the marquee franchises in the league. The problem, however, is that this generation of player knows nothing of that history and regards the Sixers as a crime-heavy outpost with shaky weather.
The self-loathing organization has bought into that narrative and is suffering through that same woe-is-me thought process the Phillies once languished under. The Sixers are clearly fourth in a four-sport city, have a tough time selling tickets and understand no NBA star of any substance would ever consider playing here right now.
All of that could change in a heartbeat with success.
Hinkie's only path to that goal, however, is Wiggins and to his credit Mr. Analytics acquired a potential second lottery pick next year by dealing All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday on draft night.
To me, though, that's like the guy at the bar who spent all of his money instead of just half on that Mega-Millions ticket, leaving one dollar to cue up Sinatra on the Jukebox:
"Here's the last toast of the evening, here's to those who still believe. All the losers will be winners, all the givers shall receive. Here's to trouble-free tomorrows, may your sorrows all be small. Here's to the losers, bless them all."
When the song stops, though, reality sets in.
Luck is for losers.
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