It was a long offseason for Philadelphia 76ers center Montrezl Harrell. As the veteran big man dealt with legal issues in Kentucky, he entered NBA free agency after wrapping up his 2021-2022 season with the Charlotte Hornets.
Harrell was clearly not headed back to Charlotte and was testing the free agency waters to land in his next destination. However, the legal issues had to get cleared up first before any teams would take a shot at the former Sixth Man of the Year.
Late in free agency, Harrell’s pending felony charge was knocked down to a misdemeanor. At that point, teams began pursuing Harrell, and it became a matter of when and where he would not sign, not if. The Sixers seemed like a logical landing spot for Harrell from the jump.
Not only did Harrell play with the 76ers’ star guard James Harden while out in Houston, but he played his best basketball under Doc Rivers’ management out in Los Angeles. The fact that the Sixers could use a veteran backup center to battle for minutes behind Embiid, bringing in Harrell made total sense.
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The 76ers landed Harrell just weeks before training camp on a two-year deal. While many might’ve assumed Harrell would inevitably end up in Philadelphia, their Atlantic Division rivals, the Boston Celtics, were being strongly considered by the 28-year-old center at first, according to Brian Robb of MassLive.
“We had talks,” Harrell said of Boston’s interest. “Honestly, it didn’t work out. We did have conversations but their mindset, where they wanted me to play or how they wanted me to play was not ideal. The situation I’m basically in or was going to be in, it wasn’t going to work out.”
“It was toward the end (of free agency),” Harrell said of the talks with Boston. “After I finished up everything I had going on this summer. It’s no secret, everywhere knew what took place (with my arrest). After I finished up that (legal situation), they had a few conversations with my agent but the role they wanted me to be in wasn’t going to benefit me, but just their situation. At the same time, it’s got to be a give and take but you have to give something.”
On Tuesday night, Harrell made his official 76ers debut against the team he nearly joined in the offseason. Unfortunately for Harrell and the Sixers, they couldn’t quite give their division rival a reason to feel like they missed in the offseason.
While Harrell will certainly have better nights as he’s proven to be a stellar backup, the big man would probably like to have Tuesday’s game back as he logged just two points in ten minutes, along with three fouls and one turnover.
The Celtics came out on top against the Sixers, winning 126-117. There will be a few more matchups between the two rivals to follow, but for the next few months, the Celtics can have bragging rights against Philadelphia as they picked up a notable win to start the year.
Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.