Montrezl Harrell — who has played for six NBA teams since being selected with the No. 32 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft — revealed a text message he received from the Los Angeles Clippers that marked the end of his three-season stint with the team.
“And it was just all bad from there,” Harrell wrote while reflecting on the 2019-20 campaign after his confrontation with Paul George. “We lost in the second round to Denver, in seven games. The next summer, the Clippers sent me a text message saying something like, ‘Thank you for everything you did for us…but, we’re going to go in a different direction.'”
The 30-year-old allegedly threatened George that he would knock him “the f— out” after the two got into an argument over a defensive mishap against the Denver Nuggets in the second round of the 2020 NBA Playoffs.
Harrell has played more games for the Clippers than any other NBA team thus far. For perspective, he appeared in over 200 regular-season games with Los Angeles and hasn’t played in more than 97 contests with any other squad.
He thrived in a bench role during his time in Los Angeles. Across 221 regular-season games played and just 10 starts, he averaged 15.2 points on 60.7 percent shooting from the field as well as 5.8 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.1 blocks per contest.
Harrell was a contender to win the league’s Sixth Man of the Year award in his second season with the Clippers. In the 2018-19 campaign, he finished third in the voting for the award behind only Domantas Sabonis and Lou Williams.
Fast forward to his third and final season as a member of the Clippers franchise, and Harrell ended up taking home the award after he averaged career-highs in points (18.6) and rebounds (7.1) in 63 games during the 2019-20 regular season.
Harrell is just one of three players along with Williams and Jamal Crawford in the history of the Clippers franchise to win the Sixth Man of the Year award.
But after arguably the best season of his pro career, Harrell had his time with the Clippers come to an end, and he struggled to replicate his production that he saw with the Clippers with other teams.
After all, since leaving the team, he hasn’t averaged more than 13.5 points per game in a single season. Plus, he averaged only 5.6 points per game with the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2022-23 regular season.
