Philadelphia 76ers forward Tobias Harris is one of several NBA players featured in the new movie “Hustle” set to hit Netflix on June 8. Adam Sandler plays a basketball scout for the Sixers in the film, which was shot on location in Philly.
Sandler has been sporadically releasing trailers while hitting the interview circuit. The Hollywood star recently sat down with Kevin Garnett to talk about what went into making the movie, including a hilarious scene involving Harris. Apparently, Sandler held his own during a 5-on-5 battle.
“Those guys kind of like, they were just nice,” Sandler told Garnett. “Just gave me little passes. Trae [Young] dished one to me, we were playing 5-on-5, a lot of the guys were there, Tobias [Harris] and Boban [Marjanović], they were being cool. They let me have the ball, I hit a shot, it was the most shaky arms I ever had when taking a shot.
“I don’t why I was so nervous. I was like don’t blow this Trae pass. They were very cool and then you know what was great about it, we played the game and it went great and I hit one shot and in the back of my head I thought the game’s over but then I go, ‘Okay, we playing another one?’ I saw their faces like, ‘Look we did one, just calm down and let us play full speed.’ I was like, maybe I shouldn’t be out there because they were just playing half speed. They were warming up.”
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Harris Subject of Constant Trade Rumors
Harris’ name has come up in a slew of trade rumors so far this offseason. The Sixers could clear up a ton of salary cap space by moving his $180 million contract.
Bleacher Report proposed sending Harris to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Malik Beasley and Patrick Beverley. Those two guys would “lengthen their rotation,” according to Zach Buckley. And Beverley’s “competitive fire” could help solve the team’s problem with mental toughness.
Another hypothetical trade, via Bleacher Report, has the Sixers sending Harris and Matisse Thybulle to the Atlanta Hawks for John Collins.
“More would have to be added to the exchange to pass the salary-matching requirements, but this would be the trade’s foundation,” wrote Buckley. “While a Collins-vs.-Harris debate might come down to the eye of the beholder, the fact Philly could get similar production from the 4 spot at a fraction of the cost might be too good to pass up.”
Improving Philadelphia’s ‘Mental Toughness’
Harris was the first person to call out Philly’s “mental toughness” following their Game 6 loss to Miami in the Eastern Conference semifinals. His teammates, including Joel Embiid, didn’t deny it. They would like to see the Sixers grab some hard-nosed veterans this offseason, guys like P.J. Tucker and Patrick Beverley are at the top of that list. Time will tell what happens.
“We drop our heads too much, our body language at times was crappy and we needed that to be better throughout this series,” Harris said after Game 6, “and I think that hurt us in this series – our mental toughness for sure hurt us versus that group.
“And they did a lot of things to kind of challenge that, like hustle plays 50-50 basketballs like everything – the physicality by them as well. We needed to be better as a collective group of holding our head and just fighting and going right back at it, and I don’t think we did a great job of that.”
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