There was another sour ending for the Philadelphia 76ers. Following a promising regular season that included Joel Embiid winning the MVP, the team formerly coached by Doc Rivers fell too early in the playoffs compared to their expectations.
Philadelphia formed a Big Three, completed by James Harden and Tobias Harris. Led by Embiid’s stellar performances, they have been seen as contenders for a long time. However, the postseason is where they can’t thrive.
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What made their last run even more dramatic was that they were one win away from reaching the Eastern Conference Finals. They were up 3-2 against the Boston Celtics, playing Game 6 at home. The elimination prompted some strong words from Harris’ father.
Tobias Harris’ father calls out the 76ers and Doc Rivers
Harris was traded to the 76ers in the middle of the 2018-2019 season after a good stint with the Los Angeles Clippers. He has become an importance player in the starting lineup for Philadelphia, but his father/agent had some bad comments. Despite not mentioning the coach, Rivers was part of the criticism considering he mentioned how poorly the team has been utilizing him.
“Tobias is an assassin scorer. Nobody in the league can stop him. Even when he was with the Clippers, he was an assassin scorer and the Pistons traded him for Blake Griffin. People were like ‘Aww, we’re just tanking now’, but he led them to the playoffs and then they traded him because they were got too good”, Torrel Harris said in an interview with the “Business of Sports” podcast.
However, his description of Tobias’ time in the 76ers was even more bold. “Ever since they traded him to the Sixers, they put him in the corner. They didn’t utilize him. He was not a priority in their offense and that’s kind of frustrating because if you’re a kick-butt player…you don’t want to be in the corner twiddling your thumb”.
“There was a stretch Embiid and Harden didn’t play for 15 games. He led the team and averaged over 25 points. Then they come back, ‘OK, well you gotta go back in the corner’. In the playoffs against Brooklyn, Tobias led them in that whole series. When they need him, he performs. Tobias is such a professional. He says ‘Hey, I’ll just do what they asked me to do. That’s what they want to do. I’m not gonna frown I’m not gonna complain. I’m a team guy’. Tobias, all about wanting to win a championship”, Tobias’ father explained regarding his son’s role.
