The Sixers' past and future collided when the team tabbed Daryl Morey as its general manager.
Morey, formerly of the Rockets, is considered one of the key mentors of former Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie, who made his name in Houston before his polarizing stint in Philly.
But the arrival of Morey doesn't mean Hinkie is interested in a Sixers reunion or any other kind of NBA return, he recently revealed.
Hinkie, speaking on a podcast with ESPN reporter Pablo S. Torre, ruled out a potential return to the Sixers and opened up about what he's been doing since he stepped down months after he was essentially demoted in 2016.
"Zero," Hinkie said of the odds of his return to the NBA. "I've turned that chapter for sure. That part of my life."
But that doesn't mean he doesn't have thoughts on how Morey should proceed in managing the Sixers' roster -- including two key players Hinkie himself drafted, in Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.
Hinkie thinks it would be crazy to trade either or both players, as some have speculated.
"Don't people remember what it took to get them? For all of them. Getting a star player in the NBA is not impossibly hard, but close," Hinkie said. "It requires either an incredible amount of luck, or an amazing amount of time, or some other way to try and get at it. So what is Jo? 26? To have a young player who is nominally, in a traditional sense, just entering his prime, and say 'oh we've got to blank.' No, job one is you've got to get great players on your team, and he is one.
"And so, I'm not alone on this, you'd be loathe to think we have to do anything and we have to do anything that requires you to potentially move a great player. They don't move very much for a reason, because people rightly don't let them go very often for a reason."
Hinkie, whose mantra of believing in a long-term "process" wore thin with Sixers fans after years of losing records, says he's moved on to a line of work better suited to the long game.
"Nominally, I stated a company. Practically, it's a venture capital firm that allows me to be an investor in early-stage companies," Hinkie said. "It allows me to sort of ride the rollercoaster with young, ambitious principled people trying to make a dent in the universe. One way or the other. Sort of commercial universe. They have some dream they want to see come to fruition and a path to get there. What they need is capital, encouragement and advice. And a bunch of amazing colleagues around them to really help them get there. That's what I do.
"I very much like what I'm doing now. I like surrounding myself with people who think in sort of the timeframes I do, which is often longer. That are quite comfortable with long feedback loops. That want to do the kinds of things I do, which is bet on young people and watch them flourish."
(h/t RealGM)