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Montrezl Harrell on CBA basketball in China: “To me, it's definitely a different type of culture, a different type of living lifestyle in general. I mean, everybody's game is in a different place, a different stage in their career. Me, honestly, it was cool to go over there, see it, be a part of it. But I don't know if my game really transitions into that right now. I'm one of those guys that still love to play the correct way, still trying to find winning plays. If a play works, milking a play, you know, different things like that. But the Chinese culture in the basketball world is a little bit different. Guys go out there and jack up a lot of shots. Bad basketball. I'm not even going to lie. Compared to the NBL, CBA isn’t bad—you make a lot of money. But as far as basketball quality? It’s different.”
A social media user has been tracked down, arrested and charged over the alleged racial abuse of Adelaide 36ers NBL star Montrezl Harrell. In a first for the sport as it attempts to stamp out racism and online abuse, Code Sports can reveal a 37-year-old man, of the Victorian suburb of Huntingdale, was arrested on Wednesday, July 2.
It’s alleged the man, in November, sent a racist direct message to Harrell, who is of African-American heritage, and was identified by investigators from the Monash crime investigation unit after Basketball Australia’s integrity unit referred the matter. The man was charged with using a carriage service to menace, harass and/or offend and bailed to appear at Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court on August 15.
Montrezl Harrell: I would definitely love to go back to the NBA
Do you have a desire to return to the NBA? Montrezl Harrell: Listen… the NBA is something that I would definitely love to go back to but at the end of the day, where I’m at in my life you gotta understand that I’ve had a great career and the way that the game looks at it when it comes to the NBA game, once you have an injury they start to write you off. And so what it happened that my injury was my knee with my ACL and my meniscus, it was basically to the point where they [the 76ers] wrote me off and I don’t have any control over that, man… but I do have control over my life and what I feel like I still have to give this game and I know that I’m nowhere near done. It’s not really up to me. I feel like that I have to go out here and kill myself for y’all to know what I bring to this game and know what type of player I am. Yes I had a knee injury, but this isn’t the old times. The way that the game is now with the different type of doctors they have; everything that they have since back when people used to do that is not that to this day and I went on a tremendous training with my rehab, I was able to get cleared and back on the court before the NBA season actually was over! I just knew me as a player how I played, I wasn’t in any shape to help any team in the playoff run. But I was cleared before the NBA season was even up but like I said, with these types of injuries, that’s just how they look at you and write you off, man.
Montrezl Harrell: But at the end of the day I’ma play with the love of basketball and like I said, I know I still have a lot of years left on my body and still left to give to this game but at the same time I’m NOT about to go out and kill myself out and be underappreciated to the point where it’s like, I’m starting to look at the game like, Bro, do I really even want to come into work? Because I’ve had those days when I was playing with the Sixers and the way that they handle business and the way they did me in that situation there I had days where I walked into the gym and I HATED being in the gym and that’s just not the player that I am. That’s never the player I’ve been. People know me from playing all around the world in the summer not getting paid a dollar — Drew League, AVL, Danny Rumph… any league it was, ‘Trez was in it. So, I’m a player that loves to play the game but for me to have and be blessed to make a paycheck from this game and for me to go to a workspace where I completely love to just go and be free in and actually hate it? It did something to me and I don’t want to have to go back to that, man. I was blessed to be able to be in a situation where they welcomed me with open arms in Australia, man. It was amazing to just be a part of that whole culture and that vibe and actually be a part of the NBL and how they not catered to me, but actually appreciate the things that I do for them on the court. I couldn’t ask for anything more, man; coming out of the headspace and places that I was in dealing with how my year was handled with the Sixers into going into a whole knee injury, man. Like, I was in a dark place and it really just helped me to get back to the light really.
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Montrezl Harrell on his time with Sixers: I hated it
Montrezl Harrell: So like I said, that whole time I experienced with the Sixers? I hated it, bro. I swear I hated it. And the thing about is, it got even worse because you see when me and Doc had words, and both times he really just discredited me as a player; like, he basically told me in the situation with me of coming with him to the Sixers, I had no other teams that wanted me which was a lie. I could’ve gone to Boston. The only reason why I didn’t go to Boston is because they basically told me that I have to be comfortable with not playing games and where I was at in my career, I looked at like, Bro, I need to be on the floor to actually prove that I still have something to give to this game and I can still play like it. I should’ve taken that situation and went to Boston honestly, but they had Al Horford and the young kid that they traded off to… the young kid that had the knee injury with the dreads. What’s his name? Robert Williams. They had him. So in that situation I’m feeling like, That’s tough to say I’ma get DNP’s and y’all already got Al Horford who’s an established vet and using the young fella Rob. That’s kinda tough. I need to be on the floor playing… It was nothing else with them. It was one of those situations where I felt like the amount of games we didn’t know that we might not have played in, that’s tough to bank on that. And then you have them over there “telling” me that I will play 15-18 minutes. Which one would you choose?
The Adelaide 36ers have announced the re-signing of Montrezl Harrell on a new one-year contract. The 31-year-old big man out of Louisville made his NBL debut last season, averaging 20.5 points, 9.3 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1.1 blocks per game.
Montrezl Harrell has agreed to a new one-year deal to return to the Adelaide 36ers, his agent Darrell Comer, Senior VP of CSE Talent told ESPN. Harrell -- an eight-year NBA veteran and one-time NBA Sixth Man of the Year -- will return to the 36ers team he averaged 20.5 points and 9.3 rebounds for over the 2024-25 NBL season, helping to guide them to a sixth-place finish and a spot in the play-in.
Former Sixth Man of the Year Montrezl Harrell signed with Puerto Rican team Gigantes de Carolina for the remainder of the 2025 season.
The Big3 is adding former NBA players Montrezl Harrell and Wesley Johnson to the roster this season, which begins in June. Harrell was the NBA Sixth Man of the Year in 2020 with the LA Clippers, and he also played for Houston, the Lakers, Washington, Charlotte and Philadelphia. Johnson was drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves as the fourth pick in the 2010 NBA Draft. He also played for the Phoenix Suns, Lakers, Clippers, Wizards and New Orleans Pelicans.
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The November 17 clash between Melbourne United and the Adelaide 36ers was overshadowed by the unsavoury scenes that involved some push and shove between players spilling over as courtside fans got involved. As a result of the incident, 36ers star Montrezl Harrell was suspended for three games and fined $3685 after the single member tribunal upheld two charges of striking ($1550 fine each), a charge of engaging in a melee ($585 fine) and a charge of inappropriate grabbing or handling of a spectator.
Tensions boiled over at John Cain Arena as multiple player and fan ejections marred Sunday afternoon's matchup between Melbourne United and the Adelaide 36ers. The 36ers' Montrezl Harrell and United's Shea Ili were issued double disqualifying fouls early in the fourth quarter, with both players ejected following a scuffle. Harrell was called for a charge on Rob Loe, with both bigs ending up on the ground. While on the floor, Harrell pushed Loe, leading to a melee that involved all players on the floor. Ili was first to enter the scuffle and push Harrell, before the 36ers big-man appeared to throw multiple open-hand strikes toward United players.
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