“Stay on the f---ing phone!” Inside the Harden/Simmons Trade Talks

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2022

⏱️ 35 minutes

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Summary

It was the blockbuster trade NBA fans had been waiting for: James Harden for Ben Simmons. It was a seismic swap that finally came together in the closing moments ahead of the trade deadline, with Sixers president Daryl Morey shouting “Stay on the f---ing phone!” to Nets GM Sean Marks. ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne takes us inside all of the conversations that led to James Harden becoming a 76er, and shares how the trade’s actually been brewing for years. And while both Ben Simmons and James Harden are getting a fresh start: is this truly the final chapter of their sagas? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	ESPN Daily is presented by supercuts, the smarter, easier way to get a haircut.
0:06.7	It's not just any haircut.
0:08.5	It's supercuts.
0:12.1	So Ramona, I need you to take me inside the phone call.
0:19.5	The phone call that blew up the NBA last week,
0:22.0	the phone call that sent James Harden to the Sixers and Ben Simmons as part of this King's Ransom to the Nets.
0:28.4	What did that call sound like?
0:31.7	Probably, you know, at the end of negotiations, right, it's usually just two guys on the phone, right? It's usually just two guys on the phone.
0:39.0	Right?
0:39.7	It's usually just Daryl Morey, Sean Marks on the phone.
0:44.5	Yes, that being the Sixers and Nets GMs, respectively.
0:50.4	They'd been kind of posturing and playing these games with each other for weeks.
0:55.2	Things on Wednesday had started to get a little more serious.
1:00.2	Finally, by Wednesday night, they say, okay, let's make a time that we're going to call each other,
1:05.2	so then we're not playing phone tag with just hours to go before the deadline,
1:08.5	because that's what happens, and everybody's calling you.
1:11.2	And they decided to talk at 9.30 Eastern.
1:14.7	Now, you have to understand, when you get to the end,
1:18.9	there's a lot of details that actually really matter,
1:22.0	but you don't want to focus on them because you're so close to a deal.
1:26.6	You don't want to worry about the protections on a on a 2027 first round pick as any kind of a holdup. And you certainly
1:34.2	don't want to do what Sean Marks did to Darrell Morey at the end, which is say, I need to go
	...

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