NBA veteran Marcus Morris Sr. trashed Philadelphia 76ers President Daryl Morey after his recent admission on AI use for franchise decisions.

Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

Former NBA player Marcus Morris Sr. went off on a pretty explosive rant against Philadelphia 76ers President Daryl Morey. While appearing on ‘The Kevin O’Connor Show,’ Morris was asked about Morey recently admitting he uses AI to aid in team decision-making for the 76ers.

This prompted Morris to go off. making it clear he doesn’t trust Daryl Morey by highlighting the bad decisions he’s been making while still not having a championship to prove his methods work.

“This is the first time I ever said this, I don’t trust Daryl Morey. I just don’t trust him. I think he’s thinking too far ahead of the way basketball needs to be played. He’s trying to do a whole new team.

He’s trying to bring guys in. He’s flipping them in and out in and out, in and out. Does he even understand the dynamic of being in Philadelphia? What guys you need to play in Philadelphia?” 

“Like, I understand how the team needs to jell first before you start talking about AI. What does AI do? Like, I understand the effects it can have on other spots of maybe the offense, the numbers, and things like that, but like telling you what guys you should choose or with guy fits what you’re trying to do. What has he won? Like he hasn’t won in so long, right?”

“You tell my guy JH (James Harden) that you’re gonna do something for him. A guy that you brought from all these teams, and then you don’t know,—like the AI tell him not to pay James Harden this amount of money? Does the AI tell him to go get Paul George? Hire Nick Nurse?” 

“AI tells you to get the guy from Miami…Caleb Martin, because he played well in the Boston series. He can’t shoot the ball. You got three dominant guys who need the ball in their hands.

Why is that the first guy that you go get, right? Like, how did you come up with picking a team? Why do you want to start a brand new team and try to win a championship?” 

“I haven’t seen any team that has 10 new guys be really good the following year. I don’t even know if any team has ever done that. Like, I’m just not a fan of, like, how he go about choosing players and, like, flipping players in and out. It’s kind of like he’s trying to, like, outsmart the game too much, right?”

Morris eviscerated Morey with this, making some extremely valid points.

The decision to not pay and force James Harden out last season has aged badly. Harden led the Clippers to a top-four seed last season and has been their key offensive player for a Playoff push this season. Harden was pushed out to open up salary space for Paul George in the summer, a decision that’s gone as badly as possible.

Morris even hit on other moves like the decision to sign Caleb Martin in the summer. They somehow got out of that because Nico Harrison might be the only GM having a worse year than Morey, handing the 76ers Quentin Grimes for essentially nothing.

This is a horrible season for the 76ers and Morey needs to be held accountable. With how veteran players like Morris and Harden view him, it seems he could alienate more stars in the coming years.