Danny Green wants to make one thing abundantly clear: there was no ill-will behind his head-turning decision on an inbound pass Sunday.
Green went viral over the weekend for an innocuous move during the second quarter of a win over the New York Knicks. After a Knicks bucket, Green retrieved the ball, and new Philadelphia 76ers teammate James Harden was waiting just a few feet away for the pass.
Instead, Green passed it up the floor to Tobias Harris, who was at nearly half court, with Harden holding his hands up and giving a stunned look.
Given Harden’s reputation as a bad teammate, the clip went viral, in some cases being portrayed as some sort of referendum on how the Sixers feel about Harden. But Green explained on his podcast, “Inside the Green Room” that it wasn’t a snub of Harden.
“As I’m taking the ball out, I see James, but I see someone sneaking up behind him. And in my vision of it, I thought he was closer than he actually really was from my angle. I just saw Tobias (Harris), so I thought if I get the ball up the floor we get the easy basket,” Green said. “(Harden) was like ‘Yo, why didn’t you give me the ball?’ I was like, ‘I mean, I saw Tobias open.’ It had nothing to do with the chemistry, it had nothing to do with that.
“I was just trying to make the play that was wide-open, the easy one. And for some reason I thought the guy was a lot closer to James than he was and he wasn’t. Obviously, from TV, from that angle, it looked bad. I was like ‘Damn, I didn’t realize it.’ And of course, he doesn’t get the ball, he’s looking like ‘What the hell are you doing?’ He stopped and walked up the floor, and I’m just like, ‘Yeah, we’re trying to go.’”
Green also mentioned that the 76ers had struggled with turnovers in the frontcourt, so that further nudged him in the direction of just making the safest play.
So long as Harden is in Philly, there are going to be concerns about fractured chemistry. But in this instance, it appears to be not much more than a bad coincidence.
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