Enter the City of Brotherly Love and see how the NBA's Philadelphia
76ers trusted The Process-using a bold plan to get to first by becoming
the worst.
When a group of private equity bigwigs purchased the Philadelphia 76ers
in 2011, the team was both bad and boring. Attendance was down. So were
ratings. The Sixers had an aging coach, an antiquated front office, and
a group of players that could best be described as mediocre.
Enter Sam Hinkie--a man with a plan straight out of the PE playbook, one
that violated professional sports' Golden Rule: You play to win the
game. In Hinkie's view, the best way to reach first was to embrace
becoming the worst--to sacrifice wins in the present in order to capture
championships in the future. And to those dubious, Hinkie had a
response: Trust The Process, and the results will follow.
The plan, dubbed "The Process," seems to have worked. More than six
years after handing Hinkie the keys, the Sixers have transformed into
one of the most exciting teams in the NBA. They've emerged as a
championship contender with a roster full of stars, none bigger than
Joel Embiid, a captivating seven-footer known for both brutalizing
opponents on the court and taunting them off of it.
Beneath the surface, though, lies a different story, one of infighting,
dueling egos, and competing agendas. Hinkie, pushed out less than three
years into his reign by a demoralized owner, a jealous CEO, and an
embarrassed NBA, was the first casualty of The Process. He'd be far from
the last.
Drawing from interviews with nearly 175 people, Tanking to the Top
brings to life the palace intrigue incited by Hinkie's proposal, taking
readers into the boardroom where the Sixers laid out their plans, and
onto the courts where those plans met reality. Full of uplifting,
rags-to-riches stories, backroom dealings, mysterious injuries, and
burner Twitter accounts, Tanking to the Top is the definitive, inside
story of the Sixers' Process and a fun and lively behind-the-scenes look
at one of America's most transgressive teams.
Including exclusive interviews with Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, and Coach
Brett Brown, Sam Hinkie, and more.
