On March 11, Beijing time, the 76ers played at home against the Nets, and guard Danny Green talked about Harden and Simmons on the latest podcast program, and a lot of material broke from the perspective of teammates.
From opponent to teammate, Green talked about the new impression Harden had made on himself. "He's very professional, and you've probably heard stories of his addiction to nightclubs all the time, but in fact he's not that kind of person."
As a teammate, Green saw Harden's investment on the training ground, spending most of his time practicing in the arena. "He often does high-intensity leg explosive training such as footwork, dragging heavy objects, elastic belt pulling and running, and after practicing he will practice shooting," Green revealed, "He is a veritable training maniac, and I didn't know he was such a person." Green also said that he only knew harden as a singles master before, and did not expect that his ball quotient of reading the game was also so high.
As for former teammate Ben Simmons, Green revealed that Simmons was once "out of touch" with his teammates. Green said the 76ers team tried to contact Simmons several times, but he didn't respond. Green even speculated whether Simmons had changed his number. Green and several of his 76ers teammates had planned to fly together to Los Angeles to communicate with Simmons, but after learning that Simmons had refused to communicate, they cancelled the flight. He didn't communicate with his teammates until he showed up at the 76ers camp, which actually shows Simmons's determination to leave.
Green admitted that the 76ers locker room had talked about some rumors of Simmons' trade, but did not expect Simmons to exchange for a player of Harden's level. "He (Harden) changed our expectations for the season," Green said. Before harden's trade was completed, Green and his teammates also played the "general manager game" to discuss who Simmons could exchange, and they discussed a lot of plans, and also joked that they would become chips in the plan.
Green was also upset about Wei Shao in the podcast. "Now the Lakers' roster isn't formed by him, he's just being traded over to play, and sometimes things don't go the way people expect. So it's not fair to blame Westbrook," Green said. Like Westbrook, Green was also subjected to "death threats" while playing with the Lakers.