Losses Can Linger Years Later

In 2013, Sam Hinkie took over as general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers. Hinkie’s background was deeply rooted in analytics, and he believed the organization needed a complete revamp that would require a long lens. So, he decided to lose games at an alarming rate to gain high draft picks and thus find superstar talent that would allow the team to compete for the title. The plan he devised became commonly known as “The Process.”

Hinkie was relieved of his duties in 2016, well before the team became a playoff contender. He was unable to see his vision to completion, and a new general manager was allowed to use his vast collection of assets to shape the 76ers.

We can learn a great deal from Hinkie’s long-lens view and his strategic planning. In his resignation letter, he highlighted his thought process: “Ask who wants to trade for an in-his-prime Kevin Garnett and 30 hands will go up. Ask who planned for it three or four years in advance and Danny Ainge is nearly alone.” Same for Daryl Morey in Houston trading for James Harden. San Antonio’s Peter Holt said after signing LaMarcus Aldridge this summer, “R.C. [Buford] came to us with this plan three years ago, four years ago — seriously. And we’ve worked at it ever since.”

Hinkie’s long view was powerful, intelligent and bold; however, his lack of managing the short-term problems resulted in severe long-term issues that he was not around to solve. Losing creates a culture that we know is hard to overcome. Being willing to accept losing in a competitive world is a dangerous slope to slide down. As a result, to offset the losing, concessions to players are made that ultimately become hard to change.

Throughout Hinkie’s 7,000 word manifesto, he never mentioned building a winning culture first, he only mentioned how to beat the competition, how to zig when everyone else zags. He never laid a foundation of his winning culture that would allow players to handle the losses and how to build a tough mindset centered on being competitive. When losing becomes acceptable, when losing becomes the vision, how can you expect people to alter their course or change their habits suddenly? Asset management is a beautiful idea. But as we know, with any thriving team or organization, culture comes first.

The point for all of us to learn from the Hinkie experiment is that it did not entirely fail — it had merit and validity. But it was an incomplete idea. It treated a locker room of people as if they were assets, without regard to the negativity that the losses would instill into their culture. It did not promote mental toughness or the competitive fiber championship teams needs. It proved having great players is never great without a competitive culture.

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