Sixers

Joshua Harris Can’t Possibly Be Serious

By Kyle Scott

Published: May 17th, 2017 · 9:15 AM EDT

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Fuck this guy.

I don’t know if video of this little impromptu presser Harris gave after the lottery exists, but if it does I need to see it. First of all, I refuse to believe that a grown man – a grown billionaire – man would utter the phrase “text him a kiss” unironically. Second, Harris is an opportunistic, spineless phony. He bought the team, tapped a carnival barker in Adam Aron to run it until everyone saw through his nonsense, and allowed Sam Hinkie to tinker and work his beautiful magic to put the Sixers in the desirable position they currently find themselves. With that, came all the criticism, which Harris deflected directly onto Hinkie like an asshole kid with tinfoil on a sunny day hanging around an ant farm. Make no mistake, it was Harris who gave his blessing for the Sixers to become an embarrassment to the NBA for the sake of rebuilding. It was the right call, for sure, but it also doesn’t happen if you don’t have an owner who is willing to put up with it. So, credit to him for that, I guess. And yet, rather than own it and put on his big billionaire pants and tell Adam Silver to go fuck himself when the league raised concerns with the process, Harris sacrificed Hinkie and brought in a league-approved GM because he was too clueless and lacked the confidence to see his original vision through to completion. We joke that Hinkie died for our sins, but he actually died for Harris’. The notion that Hinkie, a genuine intellectual with a deep knowledge of both basketball and business, couldn’t turn the page and build the Sixers into a winner is ridiculous. The anyone can lose anti-Hinkie argument is fine until you realize that some of the biggest fruits of the process have been Hinkie’s willingness to reach on Joel Embiid with the number three pick and collect so many assets that I’m guessing Bryan Colangelo literally won’t know what to do with them and he might actually lose one. The fact is, Harris gave into the pressure, forced Hinkie out with the guiding hand of Papa Colangelo, who totally went through a thorough and considered process of finding a new GM and just happened to land on his own fucking offspring.

Harris can’t have Hinkie. Scott O’Neil can’t have “the process.” It wasn’t until 20k maniacs chanted about it at the Wells Fargo Center this year that O’Neil and his crew embraced it. And despite never publicly criticizing him, it wasn’t until last night that Harris dared to credit Hinkie for putting the Sixers in the position they’re in. Don’t pander to the fans. Let us have our Hinkie adoration. You forced him out and have to live with the alternative. Is Bryan Colangelo the right guy to mold the Sixers into a winner? Who knows. I certainly would have more confidence in Hinkie to do so (for example, to hold Josh Jackson hostage on draft night and trade back two picks to take Malik Monk), but it remains to be seen what Colangelo is truly capable of.

Hinkie is responsible for almost all of the Sixers’ “success” thus far, and the guy who backstabbed him doesn’t get to remove the knife and apply pressure to the wound and then take credit for being the hero.