Philadelphia 76ers general manager Sam Hinkie began to believe that this burgeoning front-office arrangement would never work for him, that chairman Jerry Colangelo had persuaded ownership to marginalize Hinkie’s influence and strip his authority.

Over weeks, Hinkie had considered the possibility of his future and finally decided to resign on Wednesday. He often explained himself to ownership in letters and reports, especially because that’s how it liked to be informed of his plans of action.

View photos Sam Hinkie, center, tried to make things work with Jerry Colangelo. (AP) More

So, Hinkie emailed his resignation letter in the afternoon to Sixers ownership, including 12 majority and minority owners, and Jerry Colangelo. He expected ownership to respond to him and work toward a joint public announcement on Thursday, sources said. Within two hours of sending the email, the letter had been leaked – Jerry Colangelo was Hinkie’s strong suspicion, sources said – to a media outlet.

Hinkie was mortified to see his words in the public arena, never expecting that a private correspondence to his superiors would become public and turn into something of a mocked manifesto. He wanted to tell his staff of his decision on late Wednesday or Thursday morning, once he talked with ownership about how his departure would be made public.

Hinkie never had the chance. The news was out, and Hinkie had lost control of his departure. His staff learned of his resignation in the news.

From the moment Colangelo arrived on the job in December, Hinkie was doomed – no matter how hard Hinkie tried to work with Colangelo, no matter how hard he tried to accept and implement his advice. Around Hinkie, people were surprised at how optimistic he had been about finding a way to coexist with Colangelo, about working together. Others were far more cynical about how this would end – and turned out to be right.

In the end, Colangelo wanted two things: to turn Hinkie into a glorified director of analytics; or run him out completely, sources said. In several parts of the Sixers’ ownership group that wasn’t well-received. Even today, Hinkie still holds strong support with several members of the Sixers’ ownership group. They believed his plan could have harvested results this summer, sources said, and that he should’ve been afforded more time on this grand experiment.

Ownership resisted on completely abandoning Hinkie, sources said. It kept finding ways to make this work long term with Colangelo and Hinkie. Colangelo signed a deal – three years in length, sources said – to oversee the franchise from afar in Phoenix. From the start, Colangelo felt that Hinkie didn’t have the necessary people skills to run an NBA organization, that he was too buried in numbers and pie graphs and PowerPoint presentations. Jerry Colangelo constantly lamented the absence of what he termed “real basketball people” in the organization. Colangelo has strong respect for Hinkie’s No. 2 man, Brandon Williams, who played in the NBA, and even signed off on Williams’ promotion to chief of staff.

View photos Jerry Colangelo, left, with 76ers co-managing owner Josh Harris. (AP) More

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