I'm happy for the Sixers. I really am.
The ping-pong balls and the basketball gods smiled on them this week, giving them the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft.
A lot of people are saying this is evidence that "The Process," former GM Sam Hinkie's much-ballyhooed method of getting bad enough to garner all those high picks, was the right way to go.
I'm not so sure.
The whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Yes, I know that's the way the NBA is constructed, that it's really the only way to get back among the league's elite.
That doesn't mean I have to like it.
I don't.
I lost my interest in the Sixers over the last three years.
What they did is referred to as "tanking," losing on purpose for the sole purpose of increasing their odds of getting the top draft pick.
It was not a lot of fun to watch.
You almost have to feel sorry for Hinkie, the man who conceived this plan, only to be axed once the NBA bosses put pressure on the Sixers' owners to end the charade.
They promptly brought in the Colangelo family to run things, and the writing was on the wall for Hinkie.
Now the biggest question the Sixers face is whether to take LSU star Ben Simmons, or Duke's Brandon Ingram with that top pick.
Oh, and one other thing, just in case they ever win something.
Should their accomplishment be complete with an asterisk?
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