Daryl Morey: Sixers Fans’ Bad Rep is Real for Players, Agents

Philadelphia fans have garnered a bad reputation over the years. As the infamous throwing snowballs at Santa during a Philadelphia Eagles game incident is constantly brought up from time to time to explain the negative perception of every Philly team’s fan base, every fan base in the City of Brotherly Love feels the dislike from outsiders.

Some embrace it. Others do what they can to shake it off or defend the fan base as a whole. Either way, the bad stigma doesn’t go away, and there have been past rumors of players not wanting to play for Philadelphia sports teams because the fans have turned against their own at times.

Is that a myth? Philadelphia 76ers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey recently weighed in on the conversation, and his intel might shock many.

“There have been players that through their agents have absolutely said that they don’t want to play here, and I think it’s by reputation,” Morey said on the Rights to Ricky Sanchez podcast. “It’s a real thing.”

Morey pointed to one situation during the 2021-2022 season when Philadelphia forward Tobias Harris had a back-and-forth with the fans during a game. As Harris got off to a slow start, he heard boos aimed toward him. Eventually, when Harris started picking things up, he wasn’t fond of the fact that the boos turned into cheers. That situation worried Morey.

“I got super frightened last year with Tobias when he went through his thing where the fans were booing him, and he seemed to be going down this dark road where he was gonna heel turn and get the whole town to hate him,” Morey explained.

Fortunately, that wasn’t the case. While Harris has garnered his fair share of criticism throughout his time in Philadelphia, the heel turn never came to life as he eventually acknowledged he was letting emotions get the best of him at that time.

While the bad reputation could keep future players from joining the Sixers, Morey ultimately loves what Philly’s fan base brings to the table year in and year out.

“They’re great fans, but they’re not this like,” Morey said, comparing the Rockets fan base with the Sixers’. “I love it. They’re like this ride-or-die, ‘If you’re not bringing the full effort, I’m going to make life a living hell for you, even at Starbucks, until you do it.’ I sort of love it, but I do have to factor it in.”

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports Illustrated channel. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.