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Tobias Harris talks return to Philadelphia, reflects on Sixers years originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Tobias Harris and Paul Reed were back in the building late Wednesday morning.
Once he wrapped up his post-shootaround routine, Harris stopped along a familiar baseline in Pistons gear.
A scrum of reporters were ready to ask about his first game as a road player at Wells Fargo Center since Nov. 1, 2018.
“It’s always good to be back. … I was here for a long time,” Harris said. “A lot of memories, a lot of experiences, so just kind of taking it all in and going through all that.”
Harris was indeed stationed in Philadelphia for quite a while. After acquiring Harris, Mike Scott and Boban Marjanovic before the trade deadline, the Sixers signed Harris to a five-year, $180 million contract in the summer of 2019. Amid near-ceaseless Sixers drama — highly publicized trade requests, injury woes, bitter playoff endings — only Harris and superstar center Joel Embiid stayed on the team for the duration of that deal.
Though struck by rotten luck on occasion — everything from Kawhi Leonard’s quadruple-bouncing 2019 series-winner to fluky Embiid injuries — Harris and the Sixers were never quite good enough to break through the second round of the playoffs. Harris was scoreless last year in the Sixers’ tight Round 1, Game 6 loss to the Knicks.
“That’s the biggest disappointment,” he said. “High expectations for a very good group. Different coaching staffs, different rosters, but overall, I feel like we had enough talent to make something happen and have it come together. But that’s kind of the nature of sports sometimes.”
Ultimately, Harris never rose to an All-Star level in Philadelphia or produced sufficiently relative to his contract. He averaged 17.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists over 378 regular-season games.
The 32-year-old took pride in generally being solid, available and professional in his approach.
“When I was a kid, if something didn’t work, I would jump to the next thing,” Harris said. “But you find a way to figure it out. It was the first thing in my life…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/tobias-harris-talks-return-philadelphia-182253276.html
Author : NBC Sports Philadelphia
Publish date : 2024-10-30 18:22:00
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