SPORTS // OUR OTHER FOUNDING FATHER

Legacy of Loss

How to fail with courage and conviction

by Dustin Hockensmith

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EXCERPT //

This was no declaration, and their fight wasn’t for independence. This was about “The Process” and the trust that Hinkie would beg of Philadelphians for years to come. In selling his grandiose vision, he touted his wizardry for numbers and advanced calculations that the meager minds of the town’s peasants could only dream of understanding.

Losing, he said, is the gateway to winning.

And so the 76ers lost, and they lost, and they lost. They recouped prime draft picks and turned them into the great hope that Ben Simmons, the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NBA draft, and Markelle Fultz, the No. 1 selection in 2017, could lead a rapid rise to a championship.

But there was one variable to The Process that not even the great Sam Hinkie could see coming: karmic retribution.

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