The ‘Trust the Process’ Sixers know what this season’s team endured: ‘Every win was like a Super Bowl win for us’

Henry Sims is 35 and playing basketball in Lebanon, but he still checks in on the Sixers. Sometimes it’s in the morning, sometimes it’s after practice. He’ll watch a recap or a game from the night before.

Sims hasn’t played for the organization since 2014-15, a season in which they lost 64 games, but that doesn’t matter. The center will always be linked to Philadelphia, just like the other members of those Process teams: Tony Wroten, Jerami Grant, T.J. McConnell, Hollis Thompson.

A few of those players, like Grant and McConnell, are still in the NBA today. But most are playing overseas, in Europe and Asia. It’s not uncommon for them to run into each other. Sims faced off against power forward Malcolm Thomas at a tournament in Dubai. Wroten saw shooting guards Jordan McRae and Isaiah Canaan in Greece.

They’ve had to get used to different styles of play, different cultures, different languages, but years later, Sims and Wroten still cherish their time in Philadelphia — tanking and all.

“It was a process,” Sims said, “And I was a part of it. I’m grateful to be a part of it, regardless what the outcome was.”

When Sims watches those games, he feels a tinge of sadness. This is not because the 2024-25 Sixers finished their year in a race to the bottom, with a record of 24-58. It’s because of Joel Embiid.

“I just want my boy Joel to get healthy,” he said. “That’s all. I haven’t spoken to him in forever, but I watched him work, and he works hard.”

They first met in 2014. The two centers’ situations couldn’t have been more different. Embiid was taken third overall in the NBA draft; Sims went undrafted, and had arrived in Philadelphia by trade a season earlier.

But they played the same position, so that year, as Embiid rehabbed a broken foot, he practiced one-on-one and two-on-two against Sims. After their first workout, player development coach Greg Foster pulled the journeyman aside.

“What do you think of him?” he asked.

“He’s an MVP, for sure,” Sims responded. “When he gets right, gets healthy, and understands the league, he’s going to be MVP, 1,000%.”

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His words turned out to be prophetic, despite Embiid’s injury-marred 2024-25 season. And while Sims can never understand the frustrations that the Cameroonian center has gone through, he can certainly relate to the unheralded players on the current team.

Unlike the Process Sixers, this year’s group had high expectations to live up to. But there are parallels between the two.

“The people who are invested in the game don’t really give [tanking] a thought, especially while we’re in the game,” he said. “They’ve been trying to win every game since they played the game as a kid. So nothing really changes when you get to that level. We can’t control if they blow the team up tomorrow. We players, we’ve got to show up and play the game.

“You know that the higher-ups have moved on to next season, for the most part. Their goal is working on that. So, that part could be weird, just because, you’re playing now, but you’re probably not going to be here next year. They already have a plan.

“So, you’re just trying to just show up and do your job. It kind puts in you a space to just work. If this is what the opportunity that I’m given is, it is what it is.”

Despite former general manager Sam Hinkie’s prerogatives, coach Brett Brown worked his team hard. Sims said Brown instructed the players not to feed into the media narrative, and not to focus too much on their record.

Above all, he stressed opportunity. This was their shot; how they handled it was up to them.

“Every day in practice was a tough day in practice,” Sims said. “We didn’t practice like a team that was whatever our record was. We had a practice in San Antonio, and guys were really getting after it. And Gregg Popovich walked in at the end.

“He said, ‘The energy in here is amazing.’ He said, ‘Outside looking in, I wouldn’t assume this is a team practicing like this, with the record you guys have.’ So, Brett Brown was really big on building a culture.”

Wroten had a different experience. He was drafted in the first round out of the University of Washington by the Memphis Grizzlies in 2012, and was traded to the Sixers in 2013. The Grizzlies went 56-26 in Wroten’s rookie year, and Washington had gone 24-11 in his lone season with the Huskies.

Losing was an adjustment.

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“It was really, really hard for me,” Wroten said. “[Stressful] and depressing. We didn’t really have vets. So it was on me to lead the team, even being one of the youngest on the team.

“It got frustrating, because in the NBA, you never really think like, ‘OK, we’re trying to tank.’ You hear about it, but you don’t really think that’s possible. But as the season started going on, I saw where it was going. So, I kind of just played my role. It’s tough, man, because I worked so hard the summer before that, and my results were showing.”

He added: “They’re constantly bringing up guys on 10-day [contracts]. So, you know guys on 10 days, that’s everything for them, they’re trying make the team. So, they’re walking on eggshells. They’re trying to be perfect.

“I’m like dang, are we going to keep bringing in 10 days, or are we going to try to build come camaraderie and try to win? But once my agent filled me in on what’s going on, I kind of got a better understanding, and I just kind of went with it.”

The Sixers went 19-63 in Wroten’s first season. They went 18-64 in 2014-15, and 10-72 in 2015-16. Sims said, “Every win was like a Super Bowl win for us.” But throughout it all, the Process teams played hard, and fans rewarded them for it.

“It was high energy,” Sims said. “I remember that. I knew they had dedicated fans. But to have the fans actually show up to the games that might not have the biggest names … that’s what a player really likes to see and really respects.

“We got our share of boos. It wasn’t all peaches and pats on the back. It was some kicks in the a—. It was a tough two seasons. But like I said, you’ve got to respect it, because when we’re winning, they’re there, and when we’re losing, they’re there."

“Everybody from Philadelphia to Chester knew they was putting us in a bad situation and didn’t want us to win, but we said, [expletive] that,” Wroten added. “Regardless of our roster, we’re going to play hard, as if every game was NBA Finals, and Philly loved that.”

After the Sixers chose not to pick up Sims’ $1.18 million qualifying offer in 2015, he signed a contract with the Phoenix Suns. He was waived in October after playing in all of the Suns’ preseason games, and spent the rest of the season with their development league team.

Sims signed back-to-back 10-day contracts with the Nets in 2016, a contract with the Jazz later that year, and finished his 2016-17 season in China. Sims also played in Italy, Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. He is currently on a team called Champville, in the Lebanese Basketball League.

It was not the easiest transition. When Sims was in China, he spent most of his time at home because he couldn’t read any of the street signs. It took him a while to adjust to driving in Saudi Arabia, where he said stop signs and streetlights were few and far between.

“Here in the Middle East, the driving is just a different world,” Sims said. “It’s like Grand Theft Auto. Just get to your destination in one piece and you’re fine.”

Wroten was waived by the Sixers in December 2015. He signed a contract with the Knicks in 2016, was waived in June, and claimed on waivers by the Grizzlies a few days later. He was waived again in October.

He bounced around a few spots in Europe — Spain, France, Greece, Estonia, Poland — as well as Uruguay, Venezuela, and most recently Iceland. He said he enjoyed the travel — especially the cuisine.

“Poland was the first country I went to that had better McDonald’s and Pizza Hut than the United States,” Wroten said. “I can’t give you an explanation for it, but I was like, how can this be possible?”

The point guard still hears from Sixers fans fairly regularly. They’ll send him old videos and tag his handle in social media posts. A few have advised him to copyright his trademark phrase — “Trust the Process” — but for now, Wroten isn’t interested.

He has something bigger in mind. The 32-year-old says he still has his eye on a return to the NBA, and is focusing on one destination in particular.

“I had high hopes for [the Sixers],” Wroten said. “What they need to do is make that phone call, and bring the Trust The Process owner back. I’ll show ‘em how to play.”