The Philadelphia 76ers have been transformed into a legitimate title contender ever since Daryl Morey took over as the team’s president of basketball operations in 2020.
Morey quickly went to work by moving good players, but odd fits, Al Horford and Josh Richardson, and brought in shooters Danny Green and Seth Curry to replace them. The added spacing for Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons allowed the Sixers to earn their first No. 1 seed in 20 years in the 2020-21 season.
Fast forward to this moment and Morey then flipped Curry and a disgruntled Simmons to the Brooklyn Nets for future Hall of Famer James Harden. The Sixers are now considered one of the favorites in the East as Harden and Embiid look like one of the best star duos in the league.
Embiid sat down with Sam Amick of The Athletic and he went over a variety of topics with him including his initial thoughts on Harden when the trade went down:
Honestly, I didn’t know anything was going to happen, really, until it happened.
I don’t really like to get in those conversations, because I don’t want to be responsible for, you know, choosing guys and not succeeding. … (But) when it did happen, ultimately, I was like, ‘You know what? That’s James Harden. We know what he’s done in the past.’
We obviously played against each other, and I always tried to talk trash to him during games when we played against each other. But I didn’t really know him. But from the time that we got him, I can see the excitement. I was just happy, because we had a big hole. And we replaced that hole with James Harden.
Embiid was then asked about Morey and he admitted he didn’t know much about him when Philadelphia first brought him in as he told Amick:
Well, when we got Daryl, I didn’t know him at all. I just knew him obviously because he was the GM of the Rockets. I sat down with him when we got him, and we just had a conversation about what he thought — what were his goals? And after having a conversation — you know, I don’t do anything with my life other than family. That’s what I do (Embiid and his fiancé, supermodel Anne de Paula, have an 18-month-old son, Arthur). And just talking to (Morey, Embiid could tell) how smart he was and I kind of related to him. So from that first conversation…
Embiid added that the sit-down with Morey was at co-managing partner Michael Rubin’s house:
Obviously the previous year, we had Al (Horford) and J-Rich (Josh Richardson) — great guys, but the team just didn’t fit. That’s why in the (Orlando) Bubble, we just couldn’t do anything.
And then (Morey) just came in (a month later), obviously, and what we were missing was shooting. He went in and he got Seth Curry (in a deal with Dallas that sent Richardson and the 36th pick to the Mavericks) and then obviously from there it just looked like everything just all fit together. So I was like, ‘OK.’ We started playing well, and obviously you add that with the number one seed last year. And in the playoffs, if we all played at the level that we were supposed to, we should have at least gone to the conference finals.
So that’s where the trust really came.
Embiid admitted that the Sixers still have a long way to go even over these final eight games with Harden before the playoffs begin. With that being said, Philadelphia is still going to have as good a chance as anybody to win the title in the postseason.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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