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Does Sixers owner Josh Harris even care?

    by John Smallwood
    Published 
New York Knicks owner James Dolan has not shown to be any more competent than Sixers owner Josh Harris, but at least Dolan is embarrassed by the sorry state his franchise has sunk to.
An article in the New York Daily News on Wednesday said Dolan’s anger is rising as the Knicks have gone 2-12 in their last 14 games and slipped out of playoff contention.
Daily News reporter Frank Isola wrote, “The MSG chairman, according to a source, was visibly agitated following the Knicks’ lackluster performance in a loss to the Toronto Raptors on Monday.
“It is unclear if Dolan addressed team president Phil Jackson. … But Dolan is said to be just as angry as (Knicks star player Carmelo Anthony) with the direction of the Knicks.”
By contrast, Harris called the 2013-14 season when the Sixers went 19-63 successful and was happy after the 2014-15 squad limped home at 18-64.
The closest Harris has come to showing contrition concerning his sad-sack team was after the NBA forced him to hire Jerry Colangelo in December and he said, “This season to date has not been easy for us and even more difficult than we anticipated."
Although the Sixers were 1-19 at the time, Harris said, “Is that frustrating? Yes, it’s frustrating. But that doesn’t mean that we’re going to deviate from our process.”
That was the last word heard from Harris concerning the state of the Sixers, who are now 8-49 and riding a six-game losing streak.
Sixers president/general manager Sam Hinkie has taken most of the hits for a team that is 45-176 since his hiring.
Still, while Hinkie may have been the architect of this “Process” to sink to the pits of Tartarus in hopes of eventually rising to Olympus, he could not have implemented it without the blessing of ownership.
Hinkie did not have the clout of Knicks general manager Phil Jackson, who in addition to getting $12 million a year, demanded that Dolan keep his hands off the basketball operations.
Up until the other NBA owners told Harris he had to start contributing to the financial pot and stop just taking from it, everything that the Sixers have done had to be first cleared with him.
Remember, it was Harris who not only approved the ill-fated trade for Andrew Bynum but also gushed about wanting to give him an extension during that over-the-top welcoming ceremony at the National Constitution Center.
Harris was all on board with the tank until the NBA office sent in Colangelo to try to clean things up.
What the Sixers do this summer will ultimately tell if Harris is truly invested in seeing the Sixers move forward in a positive direction.
Obviously, Sixer fans don’t want Harris to be as incompetent as Dolan, but it would be nice if he cared as much as Dolan about being incompetent.​
    JS
    John Smallwood
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