Sixers

Daryl Morey Says He “Should Have Had a Better Relationship” with Ben Simmons

By Kyle Pagan

Published: Feb 18th, 2022 · 9:48 AM EST

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Daryl Morey was on the Rights to Ricky Sanchez podcast to discuss the Ben Simmons for James Harden trade, convincing Ben to play if the trade didn’t happen, the 13-15% chance the Sixers now have winning the title, NFTs, and more:

Transcribed by Andrew Porter at 94WIP, Daryl said:

“I should have had a better relationship with Ben, I really believe that. That’s on me. I think knowing how sensitive he was to public comments that, that behooved us to be, just organizationally, more careful on that. I think it’s important to know your top players and their different spots where you have to pay attention. Yeah, I’d probably say those two. I mean I’m usually more upfront person with trades with players. I’ll be very upfront with them when things can happen. Like the timing on the first Harden trade [opportunity last season] got very challenging because it was in a time where trades normally don’t happen. Yeah, I could have done a lot better. I just focus on myself, mostly.”

Morey also said they had a plan to bring Ben back if they weren’t able to work out a trade:

“We had a whole plan of convincing Ben to come back to play,” Morey explained. “Who knows of how successful that would have been. Didn’t make a lot of sense to push on that option, until we had to do it.

“There was a lot of planning, what will be said, who will say it. What meetings, me trying to convince Ben to come back. I would have been doing whatever it took. There would have been a lot of persuasion attempted.”

I’m so happy Daryl got Harden. I mean look at this embrace, like his son just got back from war:

via Daryl Morey IG

He has an 8 ft. tall painting of a Fire & Ice James Harden in his apartment:

from RTRS YouTube

I can’t imagine the weight that was lifted off Daryl’s back when they called that trade into the league office. Now we can focus on the buyout market and Tyrese Maxey getting a Master’s degree from the James Harden school:

Tyrese Maxey with a free Masterclass membership taught by James Harden https://t.co/WDQJSs4C5a

— The Wooderboys (@wooderboys) February 18, 2022