TOW #12 - Visual Text "A Third Season of Tanking May Be Too Much to Ask"

    With Bryan Colangelo as the new head of the front office for the Philadelphia 76ers, the franchises' years of losing has officially come to an end. Appearing on the sports section of the Philly.com during the "Hinkie Era", the satirical cartoon by Rob Tornoe mocks then General Manager Sam Hinkie for intentionally losing to acquire better draft picks, more popularly known as "tanking".  Through the use of  creative humor and exaggerated understatements, Tornoe effectively argues Sam Hinkie's ineffective leadership in a satirical visual cartoon.
    Sam Hinkie has been widely recognized for the massive amount of losses he had brought to the Sixers during his tenure as the manager. Tornoe creatively pokes fun of Hinkie's plan as he uses wordplay to mock the hardships the GM brought to the fanbase.  His infamous "tanking" plan is illustrated as an actual tank that runs over innocent lives, specifically representing the Philly fans. This in effect reveals the ridiculous extent to which Sam Hinkie did not have sympathy towards the suffering fans across the city of brotherly love.
     Hinkie's strategic plan to intentionally lose in order to set up a potentially better future is also highly questioned by Tornoe when presenting a statement that is worse than depicted.  After running over a Sixers fan, Tornoe mocks Hinkie stating, "Don't worry, that'll start to feel better in 3-5 years".  Clearly depicted by the cartoon, the injured man is in critical condition, but Hinkie is shown to undermine the issue that is at hand. As the general manager of a profession organization, Hinkie is mocked for not proving to be an effective leader in the front office as he directs the injured fan to just wait "3-5 years".  Although Hinkie's timetable to rebuild a team is a ridiculous long period from the views of many, his statement undermines the problem which depicts his lack of skills as a GM.
   Hence, Rob Tornoe justifies his claim that Sam Hinkie is not a competent General Manager for the Philadelphia basketball organization through his ingenious use of humor and understatement in the satirical sports cartoon.