Joel Embiid has gone by The Process for quite some time. The big man took on the nickname during Sam Hinkie’s tenure in Philadelphia and continued to embrace it after Hinkie was dismissed in 2016, a decision by the Sixers’ front office that Embiid didn’t agree with.
“I remember I used to get calls about like ‘can you please tell Joel not to mention the process’ name? We’re trying to move on from it,” Embiid said on The Draymond Green Show (h/t Liberty Ballers).
“I got to the league and my second year, (Hinkie) was basically forced out,” Embiid said. “I don’t wanna say names but you know I’m outspoken so I’ll say it: the NBA. I don’t know who, but I think that’s what it was…they basically forced him out and I didn’t like it.”
The Process in Philadelphia began back in the 2013 offseason when Hinkie took over the reins as the GM. It was a year after the Sixers’ ill-fated Andrew Bynum deal and Hinkie opted to trust the analytics and liquidate the franchises’ assets, starting with the Jrue Holiday trade at the 2013 NBA Draft.
After finishing the 2013-14 campaign with a record of 19-63, Hinkie and the Sixers landed the No. 3 overall pick in the 2014 draft, which was used to select Embiid.
“Around that time the league did not like The Process because it was a bunch of losing, they’re saying it was tanking, they were losing on purpose, which in the end no one loses on purpose,” he said. “If you’re not talented enough in the NBA, yeah, you’re gonna freaking lose if you’re playing against more talented players.”
“I knew they didn’t like The Process and then I was like ‘you know what? I’m gonna piss some people off’,” Embiid continued, “so that’s why I started pushing the agenda about you know what? I’m gonna support my mans because he drafted me, coming out of college before I got drafted he believed in me.”
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