Sam Hinkie declined Daryl Morey’s request to ring the bell at Wells Fargo Center

Former Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie got the process going all the way back in 2013. Now, 11 years later, president of basketball operations Daryl Morey wanted him back in the building for a special pregame ringing of the bell.

“I talked to him [Wednesday] and I told him you guys rang the bell and he was all happy about that,” Morey said on the latest The Rights To Ricky Sanchez episode.

“And I was like, ‘You can ring the bell!’ And he was like, ‘Oh, no, no.’ I was like you should re-engage. To his credit, he rode off into the sunset. I asked him has Detroit called. Do teams like reach out to look for options and he’s like, ‘I’m out in the wilderness.'”

This feels weird.

Morey has had an interesting tenure with the Sixers. He has done a lot of good but has done some weird things as well. This is one of them.

Reaching out to the guy that a lot of the people in this city despise to ring the bell before a playoff game is a risky play. Some people also love Hinkie. He brought Joel Embiid to Philadelphia with his wonderful years of tanking and trusting the process.

But look where it has gotten them so far, zero championships.

Hinkie has also completely disappeared from basketball. He has made claims saying he never wants to work in the NBA again. Why in the world would he come back to ring the bell?

It is a weird situation that in the grand scheme of things means nothing unless you want it to.

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