As the much-maligned wing player returns to Philadelphia on Wednesday, Sixers fans need not waste their time booing someone who’s just not very good.
What are some of the more highly anticipated returns of former Philadelphia athletes to The City of Brotherly Love? Terrell Owens coming back to play the Eagles as a Cowboy stands out. But that’s going back about two decades now.
When it comes to more recent returns, especially those involving former Sixers, there are a few. However, the ones most people would think of all come with certain asterisks. Ben Simmons has dodged playing in Philadelphia enough since being traded to the Nets to where it’s hard to even take him seriously. The Jimmy Butler situation was complicated because it was the team’s choice to move on. Sure, James Harden got booed last season, but was he even a Sixer long enough for that one to matter?
A former Sixer returning to Wells Fargo Center is once again a talking point now as Tobias Harris comes back with the Pistons on Wednesday night. When I think of these regular season games on the calendar that fans circle, I think of star players. I think of players who are so good they can change the trajectory of two franchises, the one they depart and the one they join, instantly. For whatever the reason may be, their exit from one organization gets ugly and therefore the return back to the city they used to play in comes with a chorus of boos from the home crowd. There’s probably no bigger “return game” in NBA history than LeBron’s first game in Cleveland with the Heat after “The Decision.”
I’m not saying every return game needs to be LeBron’s first game back in Cleveland. That’s impossible to replicate. But I think we can all agree Harris returning to Philadelphia is not anywhere close to meeting the standards of being showered with boos by the home fans. One of the calling cards for Philadelphia sports fans is that they hold their athletes to a high standard and thus have no problem booing their own when those performance standards are not met. In that sense, they had plenty of time to boo Tobias Harris while he underperformed over the course of the last five seasons. I would like to think this fanbase is knowledgeable enough to realize Harris was never going to be the difference maker this franchise needed. Once you admit that, moving on gets a lot easier.
Are the Sixers really worse off now that Harris is gone? I think almost every Sixers fan would argue the opposite. Are the Pistons better off now that they have Harris? Certainly not. The reason for the situations of both teams being largely unchanged, and the Sixers outlook looking better without Harris, is because he just wasn’t a needle mover in the first place. To reiterate, players who are not very good, and therefore aren’t missed when they move on, are not worth booing when they come back.
When looking back at the time Harris spent in Philadelphia, it’s probably most important to recall how he arrived. Harris was in the midst of having a career year with the Los Angeles Clippers when the Sixers acquired him during the 2018-19 season. Many believe that Sixers team to be one of, if not the best teams they’ve assembled around Joel Embiid. The what ifs surrounding the Kawhi shot will continue for as long as the Sixers remain ringless in the Embiid era.
In the ensuing offseason, Butler left for the Heat and an inexperienced GM in Elton Brand, with no Daryl Morey to lean on, panicked and overpaid Harris. The five-year commitment to a player who had never made an All-Star team, and still hasn’t, was always destined to fail. This is especially true when you consider Harris was being counted on to play a larger role when Butler and other members of the starting lineup in future years came and went.
I suppose the best argument for booing Harris on Wednesday night is that it’s one last chance to remind him that if he simply played better with the Sixers, the team would have ended its conference finals drought that’s currently sitting at 24 years. But maybe there’s a reason Harris has never played a key role for a team that made a deep playoff run. Maybe there’s a reason, once his contract finally expired with the Sixers, the obvious destination was a place like Detroit where he can rot away playing for one of the worst teams in the NBA and that other contenders weren’t interested.
Brand’s mistake in the summer of 2019 to pay Harris was the fatal blow. Statistically, Harris wasn’t much different with the Sixers for the entire contract than what he was before arriving in Philadelphia. There’s reason to be disappointed that Harris never raised his level with the Sixers, but, once again, Sixers fans had five years to boo about that. That should have been enough to turn the page. Tobias Harris is now just another player on just another bad team.