At last night’s Sixers opener, fans chanted “Trust the Process” loud enough for it to be audible on ESPN’s national broadcast. It was more in support of Joel Embiid than the dearly departed Sam Hinkie, but Sam was certainly included in it. Today, Stephen A. Smith lost his mind.

On First Take, the always rational Smith talked about Sam Hinkie like he was a serial killer in witness protection:

“What Sam Hinkie did to this city is an atrocity. And I don’t care what anybody says, the fact that this man gets to hide and not be front and center to get interviewed, to have to answer for the things that he did to me is criminal.”

He also – in his own egomaniacal “I could have won the OJ trial” way – said “I believe I had something to do with the arrival of Jerry Colangelo.” Smith claims to have spoken to the commissioner, league officials, members of the Sixers organization, and “very influential” people about his dislike of Sam Hinkie. And he also, somehow, believes that any of those people listened to him instead of doing what everyone else on earth does (except poor, poor Max Kellerman) and ignored him.

Kellerman, fighting an uphill battle known only to Sisyphus, told Smith that “the reason [Sam Hinkie] did all of those things is because he’s smart.” He praised Hinkie’s tolerance for uncertainty and the fact that he was “long science,” but really at that point it’s like explaining astrophysics to Noah, the brain-damaged Bald Eagle.