Yes? The NBA is a business. Philly is the 4th largest market in the NBA. When they were openly tanking their revenue was abysmal. They werent selling tickets or merch at home, and it was impacting road games too. Ratings plummeted, etc. The league relies on their biggest markets to carry, hence why they intervened and forced change (and literally changed the draft format).
It’s hilarious some fans think Hinkie was some NBA genius who was thwarted from world domination. The bigger issue is Hinkie was an asshole who was flaunting the blatant tanking while the NBA was moving towards getting in bed with gambling institutions. The 76ers were too outlandish with the lengths they would go to lose games. You can lose 60 games and the league is fine with it… but when you’re purposely sending out bench players on a team already low on talent, that’s as close to fixing games as it gets in the POV of Vegas
Also look around, you can get rehired in the NBA if others view you as talented despite doing deplorable shit. Look at Udoka, Kidd, KPJ, etc
The fact is nobody thinks Hinkie is this talented genius that they want to hire. He isn’t blacklisted, he’s just unlikeable
This post was edited by MildSambal on May 27 2025 01:33pm