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Jerardi: A story about horses, arrogance and Sam Hinkie

    by Dick Jerardi
    Published 
When a bunch of wise guys opened a race book in Last Vegas a while back, called it the ``Sport of Kings’’ and made a giant bet on the theory that almost all horseplayers were morons by offering fixed odds, Michael ``Roxy’’ Roxborough, one of the smartest people I know, the founder of Las Vegas Sports Consultants which made betting lines for sports books all over Nevada, told some of us: ``if this was such a smart idea, don’t you think somebody might have thought of it before?’’
When Sam Hinkie began to formulate his plan for the Sixers, I remembered what Roxy said. If losing so much that you were in play to get a top draft choice every year was such a smart idea, somebody might have tried it before.
Beyond the unintended consequences that became clear over time, the architect apparently never considered that there might be alternatives. I always thought that any plan so dependent on luck was doomed, but beyond that, I never got the sense that Hinkie knew anything about how basketball is actually played or really all that much about talent. When a substantial portion of your going-away manifesto explains your love affair with Robert Covington and how smart you were for falling in love, there is a serious disconnect.
The Hinkie debate has become moot because the long game, whatever that really was, has been shortened. Technically, we will never know how it might have played out if Hinkie had remained in charge. There were times I felt bad to be on the anti-Hinkie side of the debate because I have always loved revolutionary thinkers. I just like my revolutionaries to have a touch of pragmatism and some relationship with reality.
By the way, every sharp player in America descended on the Sport of Kings racebook which set odds before the betting. If some hot first-time starter went off at 2-1 at the track, but the book set the odds at 20-1, it was 20-1. When you get a 2-1 shot at 20-1, you own the game.
Roxy was right, of course. The Sport of Kings bled money almost from the moment it opened. It quickly went bankrupt, an arrogant idea that counted on its customers being fools and its competitors stupid.  
    DJ
    Dick Jerardi
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