Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

Philadelphia 76ers superstar center Joel Embiid said during an interview with NBA.com's David Aldridge that he still talks to former general manager Sam Hinkie and feels responsible for Hinkie's departure from the team in 2016.

"Yeah, we text sometimes. We talk to each other sometimes," Embiid noted. "I mean, that’s the guy that drafted me, and he made sure he put everything in place so I could get healthy. And I got healthy and I got back on the court. And I feel like he basically kind of lost his job because of me, because I missed two years. So I feel like I owe him a lot. Yeah, we talk. We talk sometimes."

Embiid's injuries may have played a part in Hinkie's ultimate resignation, but Hinkie's departure from the Sixers was complicated and the result of several factors.

When Hinkie took over as the Sixers general manager in May 2013, he immediately instituted an aggressive rebuilding strategy that would eventually be dubbed as "The Process," which Embiid bought into so thoroughly he made it his own nickname.

The Process had a controversial philosophy as its core tenet: It's better to be bad in the NBA and to rebuild a championship contender by drafting stars than it is to be a middling team with little chance of ever winning a title.

When Hinkie was hired, the team's core revolved around Jrue Holiday, Thaddeus Young and Evan Turner, a group expected to perhaps compete for the eighth-seed in the playoffs and little else. Hinkie instead chose to break that group up and accumulate draft assets.

Between the 2013-15 NBA drafts, Hinkie selected Nerlens Noel, Michael Carter-Williams, Joel Embiid, Dario Saric, Jahlil Okafor and Richaun Holmes, among others. He also signed players like Robert Covington and T.J. McConnell, who were obscure additions at the time but have since become key cogs in the team's rotation.

While undergoing the rebuild, however, the losses stacked up. In Hinkie's three years on the job, the team never won 20 games in a season, and his detractors claimed that the Sixers were blatantly tanking and adversely affecting the NBA's competitive balance.

Hinkie supporters, meanwhile, pointed out that a major factor in the team's struggles were injuries to players like Noel, Embiid and Okafor, while Saric spent two seasons overseas. Hinkie defenders also noted that by resisting the urge to overpay for middle-of-the-road veterans in free agency, the Sixers not only preserved their cap space but also were able to give minutes to players like Covington, McConnell and Holmes, granting them on-court experience they may not have otherwise gained.

In the process, Hinkie made a number of trades that resulted in the Sixers holding a treasure trove of future draft selections. The Sixers holding the rights to the Los Angeles Lakers 2018 first-rounder and the Sacramento Kings 2019 first-rounder, for instance, played a huge part in the team swinging a trade to move to No. 1 overall in the 2017 NBA draft and select Markelle Fultz.

Nonetheless, Hinkie ultimately lost the perception war. The NBA and its owners reportedly frowned upon his rebuilding approach, and his decision to trade Carter-Williams after his Rookie of the Year season wasn't popular amongst a subset of fans (even if it landed the Sixers a conditional first-round pick from the Lakers). Drafting Okafor was also seen as a gaffe, initially because it was the third straight center the team drafted in the first round but later because the team passed on superstar Kristaps Porzingis, who was selected by the New York Knicks a pick later.

There were also reports that Hinkie didn't foster relationships with agents, players or other general managers, and generally wasn't forthcoming with fans.

The NBA and commissioner Adam Silver ultimately stepped in, reportedly facilitating the hiring of Jerry Colangelo to a senior position in Dec. 2015. With the Sixers planning on hiring Bryan Colangelo to the front office, Hinkie resigned in April 2016 as his authority within the organization continued to wane. Bryan Colangelo was hired as team president days later.

That summer, the Sixers drafted Ben Simmons No. 1 overall and Embiid made his NBA debut in the 2016-17 campaign, playing just 31 games but showcasing his superstar potential. That pair—along with Covington, Saric and Fultz, who remains out of action due to a shoulder injury—is the backbone of what is arguably the most promising young core in the NBA.

And it's a backbone that has Hinkie's fingerprints all over it.