Tuesday was a big day in Brooklyn and Philadelphia as the two All-Stars who were traded for each other on Thursday met with the media and made their first public comments as members of their new teams.
There were plenty of questions for both and, unsurprisingly, neither was too keen on going into details on the situations they just left and how they got to the point they did, but there were some interesting nuggets from both. On the Sixers side, James Harden expressed his excitement to be playing alongside “the best big man in the league” in Joel Embiid, calling it a “perfect fit.” He also explained that it was his preference to end up in Philadelphia last year when he was looking for a trade out of Houston, saying “Philly was my first choice.”
"Philly was my first choice." – James Harden pic.twitter.com/1FCgbzFMvj
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) February 15, 2022
When he was dealt to Brooklyn, the Sixers had offered a Ben Simmons package to Houston — which, somewhat ironically, was the beginning of the end of the Simmons era as he did not like being put into trade talks — but the Rockets chose the Nets package instead. At the time, there were plenty of whispers that one of the biggest reasons Harden was sent to the Nets and not the Sixers was that Tilman Fertitta didn’t want to trade him to Daryl Morey after Morey just left, and now the Nets reap the rewards of that Simmons package while the Rockets hope their stable of first round picks will eventually produce their next young core.
