Hinkie Forever
Welcome to easily my most biased book review. I’m a Sixers fan and Process-truster, so a book about the Sixers Process years and all of the palace intrigue seems tailored made for me, and it was. I read it in a day. To make this review more structured and sensical, I’m dividing it into 2 parts: a review as a Sixers fan, and a review as a book, straight-up.
For those who don’t know, The 76ers are a basketball team who recently lost a lot of games in order to improve their team through the draft. Essentially, the worse you are, the higher your draft pick will be, and thus, the higher the chance you have to draft a superstar. Since basketball is only 5-on-5, having a superstar on your team is a game-changer. The sixers decided to lose for a couple of years in order to get the best chances to draft one or two superstars, but that made most people pretty angry, save for some fans. ThThis book is a history of that time for the Sixers, also know as: The Process.
For Sixers Fans
As a Sixers fan, the first thing that stood out to me were the chapters. Each one is a perfect moment that will immediately bring back thoughts of “….that sucked.” Honestly, it seemed unrealistic that so many unlucky or bad things happened to them in such a short amount of time. Of course, you probably know the highlights: Hinkie hired, Hinkie fired, Nerlens, Jo, Jah, Colangelo 1, Colangelo 2, Ben, Fultz, Boston, Butler, Kawhi. This book does a great job synthesizing sources into a coherent timeline. It also does a good job capturing the fan reaction to The Process, specifically through The Rights to Ricky Sanchez podcast, which serves both as a mouthpiece for process trusters, as well as a time-capsule for real-time reactions to certain events. It also has an extensive number of quotes and sources from some Process favorites like TJ McConnell and Tony Wroten.
If you’re a Sixers fan, this book will be extremely interesting as a behind the scenes look at some recent history, and also as a look into who currently runs the team. It will also probably make you frustrated about those two things too. Interestingly Yaron Weitzman doesn’t set out to paint anyone in a bad light, directly, at least. I thought the descriptions of everyone involved was fair and balanced. Nobody got preferential treatment because they were a star or an owner. He presented the subjects, and let the reader come to their own conclusions. For me, that means the Sixers are simultaneously the luckiest and unluckiest team out there. They had a plan, but not the guts to stick to that plan, they have owners who flip-flop, they got their superstars, but they don’t mesh 100%, and they’ve lost one a game 7 on one of the most ridiculous shots I’ve ever seen. It’s worth a read just to relive the ride, because it seems unbelievable. And also, there’s nothing much going on currently.
For Book Fans
For a book, this was an easy read. It’s a straightforward recounting of the Process, a period of about 10 years, with interviews with some of the people involved. It reads like a long-form sports article, which is not a bad thing, but won’t be the most compelling for some people. It doesn’t do anything crazy, like drawing a larger point about life itself or anything, but the power dynamics between the ownership group, front office, and team itself is interesting enough to grab your attention. It might be tough if you have no idea what basketball is, but even then Weitzman does a good job of giving you the basics before diving in.
Another reason it might be tough to jump into it blindfolded is because there are a lot of names in the book that are referenced often but, if you don’t follow the Sixers, might be annoying (Brown, Brand, Ben, and Brothers are all people that consistently show up). Honestly though, I would be so interested to hear what someone who has no idea about The Process thinks about it all. The palace intrigue and bad luck that has befallen the team would be compelling to anyone I think.
Conclusions
So I would recommend it on the condition that the reader has even a slight interest in basketball, or the political stuff of, say, Game of Thrones, with a different theme. If you don’t care about that stuff, this book isn’t really for you.
Sixers fans, this is a must-read. It’s the definitive history of the Process.
No player comparison this time because… c’mon, too easy.