Rich Paul called “Trust the Process” a negative thing and he’s kind of right and kind of wrong

Rich Paul went on “Game Over” with Max Kellerman and called the Sixers’ iconic “Trust the Process” phrase a negative for the organization, saying “that’s the worst thing you could do” in reference to the years of intentional losing that defined the Sam Hinkie era.

It’s an interesting statement from Rich Paul but not really. Overall, it’s mostly cut and dry. The Process produced the draft capital that eventually turned into Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, and the foundation of every Sixers roster that has followed.

Rich Paul: The Process is a Negative Thing

Rich Paul on LeBron’s ‘Trust the Process’ comment:

“That’s a negative thing. That’s not a positive thing. ‘Trust the Process’ wasn’t a positive thing for an organization. That’s the worst thing you could do.”

(via Game Over, h/t @WadexFlash) pic.twitter.com/Ya38MpwOjx

— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) July 21, 2026

This comes while LeBron James is still a free agent fielding pitches from the Sixers, Heat, Cavaliers, and Warriors with no rush on a decision, and the timing of Paul’s comments feels less like a genuine philosophical critique of organizational strategy and more like an agent creating leverage by publicly poking the fanbase of a team that is actively trying to sign his most important client.

LeBron James “Trust The Process”

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I want LeBron James in Philly more than anything.

I also don’t really like Rich Paul. Both of those things can be true at the same time and neither one changes the other because wanting a player has nothing to do with liking his agent and liking an agent has nothing to do with wanting his player.

Rich Paul is doing what Rich Paul always does, which is controlling the narrative around LeBron’s free agency by saying things that generate headlines and force teams to respond while LeBron sits quietly and lets the market come to him. Criticizing “Trust the Process” on a podcast the week the Sixers are trying to close the LeBron deal is a negotiating tactic dressed up as sports commentary and everyone involved knows it.

The Process Years Were Horrible and I’m Not Going to Pretend Otherwise

Here’s where I break with “Sixers Twitter” and the rest of the dorks who look back on the tanking years with some twisted sense of nostalgia like watching the worst basketball in NBA history was a fun bonding experience for the fanbase.

The Process years were fucking horrible. Watching a professional basketball team lose on purpose night after night while the organization publicly embraced losing as a strategy was depressing, embarrassing, and a betrayal of every fan who paid money to watch a product that was designed to fail.

I don’t care what it eventually brought the Sixers organization and I don’t care if you disagree because sitting in Wells Fargo Center watching a roster full of guys who had no business being on an NBA floor lose by 30 points on a Tuesday night in January while the front office celebrated the loss as a step toward future greatness was not a fun experience and anyone who tells you it was is lying to themselves.

Rich Paul calling The Process a negative thing is accurate when you’re talking about the tanking. He’s right that intentionally losing for years is the worst thing an organization can do to its fanbase, its culture, and its competitive credibility.

The Sixers tanked harder and more openly than any franchise in NBA history and the basketball they produced during those years was an insult to every person who showed up at the arena hoping to watch something that resembled professional competition. So yeah, Rich Paul is kind of right about that part.

“Trust the Process” Stopped Being About Tanking a Long Time Ago

Here’s where Rich Paul is dead wrong. “Trust the Process” isn’t about tanking anymore and hasn’t been for years. The phrase evolved beyond the Hinkie era the moment Joel Embiid embraced it as his own identity and turned it from a front office slogan about strategic losing into a battle cry about believing in the franchise player who emerged from all that suffering and became the most dominant center in basketball.

The Process is Joel Embiid. It has been Joel Embiid since the day he stepped on an NBA floor and started backing down opposing centers and hitting turnaround jumpers and becoming the kind of player that the entire tanking strategy was designed to produce.

Trust the Process means riding with Embiid until the wheels fall off. Blood oath. It means believing that the promise of Sixers greatness that was made during the darkest years of intentional losing will eventually be fulfilled through the player who embodies everything the Process was supposed to deliver.

It means acknowledging that the tanking sucked and the losing was painful and the years of watching terrible basketball were a genuine sacrifice by the fanbase, and that all of it is redeemed if Embiid, Maxey, Brown, and whoever else Gansey assembles around them finally brings a championship to a city that hasn’t won one in over 40 years.

Rich Paul reducing “Trust the Process” to its worst interpretation, the tanking, the intentional losing, the years of embarrassing basketball, ignores what the phrase actually means to the people who lived through it and came out the other side with Embiid as the reward for their patience.

The Process as a tanking strategy was negative. The Process as Joel Embiid and the promise of championship basketball is a thing of beauty that Rich Paul doesn’t get to dismiss from behind a podcast microphone while his client is deciding whether to join the team that the Process built.

Rich Paul Can Say Whatever He Wants. Just Send LeBron to Philly.

The Process sucked as a strategy. Joel Embiid, the embodiment of the Process, is a thing of beauty. Both things are true. Rich Paul is right about the first part and wrong about the second part and the only thing that matters in the context of the LeBron free agency is whether Paul’s public critique of the Sixers’ history is a genuine red flag about LeBron’s interest in Philadelphia or a negotiating tactic designed to extract more from the Sixers’ offer while keeping the Heat, Cavaliers, and Warriors engaged in the bidding.

I think it’s the latter because agents don’t publicly criticize teams their clients are seriously considering unless they’re trying to create leverage, and Paul calling the Process negative while LeBron is using the phrase at public events is the kind of contradictory messaging that suggests the Sixers are still very much in play regardless of what Paul says on his podcast.

The agent’s job is to get the best deal for his client and sometimes that means publicly poking the fanbase of a potential destination to see how they react and whether the organization is willing to absorb the criticism without flinching.

The Sixers shouldn’t flinch. The Process was painful and the tanking was horrible and Rich Paul isn’t wrong about any of that. But the Process also produced Joel Embiid and Embiid produced the foundation that the current roster is built on and the current roster is the reason LeBron is considering Philadelphia in the first place.

Rich Paul can call the Process whatever he wants as long as the end result is LeBron James wearing a Sixers uniform next season because the phrase stopped being about tanking years ago and started being about the championship that this city has been waiting 40-plus years to celebrate.

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