The Internet Had A Field Day After The Sixers Announced They’re Bringing In Jerry Colangelo

Today, the Philadelphia 76ers announced the hiring of Jerry Colangelo as — and this is important enough we’re going to quote what they included in the release — “Special Advisor to Managing General Partner AND Chairman of Basketball Operations.” That’s a doozy of a title for someone who has already been inducted in the Hall of Fame and is still the Chairman of the Board of Directors for USA Basketball. In other words, today was not a good day for Sam Hinkie — the possibly specious General Manager and President of Basketball Operations for the Philadelphia 76ers. If the Hinkie jokes over the last two years and the snarky use of “the Process” on Twitter and elsewhere wasn’t enough, now Colangelo is being brought in and the opaque hierarchy at the top of the franchise isn’t likely to help matters.

“Trust the Process” and all that has been codified as a pejorative now because the Sixers have stunk so bad. It’s likely even Betsy Ross has stopped Nae Naeing.

It took the husk of Kobe Bryant for Philly to net their first win of the season — on Dec. 1 — and fans are justifiably angered. Enter, Colangelo.

In the 76ers’ release, Hinkie praised him:

“It’s not every day you have the opportunity to work alongside a Hall of Famer with Jerry’s unique set of experiences. I feel incredibly fortunate to have him as part of our organization.”

Sure. That’s like if DIME brought one of the most revered and respected NBA editors in the world on, then told us we were doing a good job, but this person was just going to work alongside us now. We’d feign positivity while quietly updating our resume and sending out feelers.

Here’s more on the odd dynamic from some of the NBA insiders:

https://twitter.com/RobMahoney/status/673982594506055680

So Hinkie has the ultimate final decision, but Colangelo will be part of the collaborative process. You can probably ask some stepparents how this sort of strategy usually plays out.

We think Adrian Wojnarowski’s lede sums up the discordant nature of the hire, especially when it comes to decision making (emphasis ours).

“Despite the usurping of general manager Sam Hinkie’s authority with the hiring of Jerry Colangelo, coach Brett Brown remains firmly in the Philadelphia 76ers’ future plans, league sources told Yahoo Sports.”

So Hinkie was taken over, but remains in their plans and continues to have final say over the construction of the team. That makes perfect sense!

Basketball Twitter, obviously, reacted like they always do: with jokes. Some were good, some were not.

https://twitter.com/netw3rk/status/673981164927881216