Tobias Harris attended Michael Rubin’s Fanatics Merch Madness charity event and spoke briefly with the media, addressing the trade rumors surrounding him heading into the summer. 

Harris spoke with Dave Uram of KYW News Radio and talked about the comments his father and agent Torrel Harris made to Bloomberg’s Business of Sports podcast about how the Philadelphia 76ers have been using him on the floor. 

In case you missed it, here’s how Torrel Harris responded to a question about if the Sixers are using Tobias in the correct way. 

Tobias Harris’ father/agent Torrel Harris on his son in Philly:

Personally, I don’t think so. The reason I say that, well Tobias is an assassin scorer. I mean they can’t stop him. Nobody in the league can stop him. So he’s proven that over his career even when he was with the Clippers, he was an assassin scorer and they (the Detroit Pistons) traded him for Blake Griffin and people were like ‘Aww, we’re just tanking now,’ well guess what, He led them to the playoffs and then they traded him because they got too good. They offered us $80 million, I turned down the $80 million. They said ‘wow what are you looking for?’ I said ‘I want about $35 million a year and they’re like ‘what?’ I said ‘yeah, $35 million a year’. They said ‘well, we’re not gonna pay you that.’ So they traded him to the Sixers. Ever since they traded him to the Sixers, they put him in the corner.

They (the Sixers) took away, 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. I just think that when they gave him opportunities like there was a stretch Joel (Embiid) didn’t play and James Harden, didn’t play for like 15 games, he led the team and averaged over 25 points. Then they come back ‘OK, well you gotta go back in the corner.’ Then in the playoffs against Brooklyn, somebody got hurt, and Tobias led them in that whole series where he destroyed Brooklyn and shut down Bridges in that game, and then it’s just like when they need him, he performs, and what gets frustrating, the fans don’t really see how great a player he really is on a consistent basis just when they they need him to do that. So as a player, Tobias is such a professional. ‘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. – via Bloomberg

Tobias Harris’ Response:

Okay so here’s the deal. A lot of people were upset with Tobias Harris calling out “casual fans” yesterday who wanted him traded for a Crumbl Cookie. While I definitely understand the soft, “casual” fans being upset about Harris’ comments, he’s absolutely correct. 

This is the quote that sent social media into a frenzy…

“Casual Sixers fans, they’ll trade me for a Crumbl Cookie…At the end of the day they have to realize you’re not getting a 6’9 forward who can shoot damn near 40% from 3, guard the other team’s best player, shoot, post-up, drive…”

Tobias Harris gets such a bad wrap here in Philadelphia because of the max contract he was given by Elton Brand back in 2019. How that is the fault of Tobias Harris is beyond me. If Sixers’ fans want to direct their anger to Elton Brand and the moves he made before Daryl Morey walked into the building, I think that would be more appropriate.

Elton Brand Summer 2019

• Extended Ben Simmons (5 years, $170M)
• Signed Al Horford (4 years, $109M)
• Re-signed Tobias Harris (5 years, $180M)

At 30 years old, Tobias Harris is now a 12-year NBA veteran and has spent the last five seasons with the Sixers. In five seasons with Philly, Harris has averaged 17.7 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 3.1 assists over 308 games with the Sixers. 

Last season, he saw a dip in production because as he mentioned, his role was reduced to being the team’s fourth option behind Joel Embiid, James Harden, and Tyrese Maxey. Now, Sixers fans want to trade Harris for literally anything (cookies included) in the final year of his five-year $180 million contract.

I don’t know, maybe direct your anger towards James Harden who for whatever reason, the Sixers want to bring back after he completely disappeared the final two games of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Boston Celtics. Maybe even be upset with Joel Embiid, who laid a big fat egg in Game 7 against Boston as his team failed to get out of the second round of the playoffs again? 

Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, Tobias Harris, and yeah, James Harden all were on max contracts. Tell me what one actually worked out as planned? Have the Sixers gotten out of the second of the playoffs over the past 5-6 years?

I mean seriously, if anyone thinks Tobias Harris is a major problem on the Philadelphia 76ers then yes, you are in fact a casual fan. 

I am fully aware his contract sucks but that continues to cloud everyone’s judgement about what Harris provides the Sixers on the court. Again, Tobias Harris is getting paid Top 5 Small Forward money and he doesn’t play up to his contract. Obviously.

Unfortunately, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. (zing!).

But if you remove a piece like that from the Sixers’ lineup then this team gets significantly worse. It’s not Tobias Harris’ job to lead this team to an NBA Finals, regardless of the money.

Be upset with Elton Brand and really, the entire Sixers’ organization for mismanaging this franchise time and time again. If the Sixers are able to find a suitable trade partner for Tobias Harris this summer, let’s just hope they don’t bring in a bunch of players that will eat up salary and not produce the way Harris has during his time here in Philadelphia.

I’ve said it time and time again. The Sixers need to stop rushing into contract and trades and just let everything remain as it is now heading into next season. Let Harris’ contract come off the books, don’t throw a large amount of money at James Harden, and let’s finally get some wiggle room under the cap after the 2023-24 season where we can bring in championship pieces around Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid.

Tobias Harris is literally the least of our problems right now. Stop getting overly sensitive when a player in this city calls you a name you don’t like. What happened to being Philly tough? The amount of people crying over Tobias Harris calling them “casuals” is laugh out loud funny.

It was a bad contract. We get it. We’re stuck with it for one more year. Get over it.

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