Sad Sam Hinkie supporters really are a cult

Back in March, Sixers super fan Max Rappaport wrote a piece for Complex calling the support for the team's former general manager "The Cult of Sam Hinkie."

Here was Rappaport's justification of the group's unwavering support of Hinkie and "The Process" he put in place:

"We admit that the product right now is garbage, and we know tanking doesn't guarantee future success, but at the end of the day we support the plan because we're sick of the mediocrity we had come to expect year after year… We'd rather fail at being great than succeed at being okay."

Yes, cult seems to describe this mindset perfectly. I've never seen a fan base so rabidly and unwaveringly devoted to something as nebulous as Hinkie's plan of losing now for future success. If Hinkie's rambling, incoherent 13-page pat on the back of a resignation letter is evidence of his genius, it might be time for the so-called Sons of Sam to find a new icon to worship.

Maybe it can be Bryan Colangelo, who seems to want to continue what Hinkie started. That shouldn't really surprise Sixers fans, since the former Toronto Raptors GM admitted trying to tank during the 2011-12 season to get a better 2012 draft pick:

"Admittedly, I tried to tank a couple of years ago," Colangelo said during a basketball panel at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. "I didn't come out and say, 'Coach, you have to lose games.' I wanted him to establish a winning tradition and culture, but I wanted him to do it in the framework of playing and developing young players."

So all hail Bryan Colangelo! The only question left is what we can call this new cult of Sixers fans. Bros for Bryan? Capitulate for Colangelo? Or at this point, we can just call it "The Sixers Way."

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Rob Tornoe is the sports cartoonist for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philly.com. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

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