Sam Hinkie made a somewhat surprising, yet perhaps foreshadowed, decision to resign form his posiiton as president and general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday. His 13-page letter explaining his reasons for leaving the franchise suddenly, and aborting his controversial “Trust the Process” project just as it was about to take the next step forward, was sent to the owners of the Sixers and new chairman of basketball operations Jerry Colangelo. Somehow, that letter was also shared with the media and quickly made the rounds around the basketball world. This apparently caught Hinkie by surprise.
Adrian Wojnarowski reports Hinkie never expected his letter to become public, and it is the now former Sixers president’s suspicion the letter was leaked by Colangelo himself.
Hinkie was mortified to see his words in the public arena, never expecting that a private correspondence to his superiors would become public and turn into something of a mocked manifesto. He wanted to tell his staff of his decision on late Wednesday or Thursday morning, once he talked with ownership about how his departure would be made public.
Hinkie never had the chance. The news was out, and Hinkie had lost control of his departure. His staff learned of his resignation in the news.
You can understand why Hinkie might be upset with the way this all played out. If he intended to be the bearer of the news to the team, he should have acted faster on that plan. In this day and age, you should never go to bed with the plan to tell people of your pending departure. It will be all over Twitter while you sleep, which was the case here.
