With the Heat trading Josh Richardson to the 76ers as part of the Butler deal this offseason, Winslow said of the departure of his close friend and fellow member of the Heat’s 2015 draft class: “Just the emotional standpoint, that’s someone I grew close to. So even more than just having him as a teammate, just having him around the city, being able to go to his house, go out to eat, having that just easy communication, I’ll always have by my side. As a competitor, it won’t be too hard. It’s part of the business, but the emotional part is a little hard, but we’ll be Rook 1 and Rook 2 forever.”
Josh Richardson Rumors
All NBA Players
Position: G
Born: 09/15/93
Height: 6-6 / 1.98
Weight:200 lbs. / 90.7 kg.
Salary: $10,116,576
Born: 09/15/93
Height: 6-6 / 1.98
Weight:200 lbs. / 90.7 kg.
Salary: $10,116,576
Entering his fifth season, Richardson was involved in a five-game playoff series loss two years ago against the Sixers. There have been many other, heated games with the two teams. His biggest perception of Philadelphia as an opposing player? “The fans, man,” Josh Richardson said during Saturday’s annual Sixers Summer Shore Tour at the PigDog Beach Bar BQ in Wildwood. “The first thing you think about is how hard the fans are to opposing players. It is tough playing against that and I am excited to play on the same side of those fans.”
In looking at his new team, Richardson noted something he thought he would never see, that he will be the smallest player in the starting lineup. The rest of the projected lineup is 6-10 point guard Ben Simmons, 6-9 small forward Tobias Harris, 6-10 power forward Al Horford and 7-2 center Joel Embiid. “I have never been that ever in my life,” Richardson said about being the smallest. “This will be interesting, looking up to my teammates, talking in huddles.”
Not surprisingly, his summer has been spent working overtime on all aspects of his game. “I’ve been grinding,” he said. Smith says he has benefited from extra summer work in the weight room. The Sixers list him at 199 pounds. He said he was about 205 the last time he was weighed before the summer and now says he is 212 pounds. He hopes to become a solid rotation player. “That is the goal,” he said. “Get in the rotation and play hard and do what I do and have fun.”
Josh Richardson, an avid soccer fan, was in Miami for the Barcelona-Napoli match and spoke to Chris Fischer of NBC6 South Florida. It sounds like Richardson, acquired in the sign-and-trade deal involving Jimmy Butler, is looking forward to taking on his former team. “Honestly, when I come back here, I want to kill the Heat,” Richardson said. “I want to beat them by 20. That’s just how I’m built. If I was on the Heat, I would want to beat Philly by 50 because that’s just how the rivalry, how are teams went.”
You’ve often said you love playing in Miami. How much did you pay attention to those trade rumors? Were you nervous? Bam Adebayo: “I wasn’t nervous. It’s that state of mind where you just don’t know. You don’t know what’s going to happen. Every day when I got a (social-media) notification, I would break out in sweats because I’d be like, ‘Yo, this might be the day. I might be shipped out of here.’ Seriously, it’s a kind of feeling a lot of people don’t know what that feels like. I’ve seen my brother (Josh Richardson) get traded. That feeling sucks the air out of the room. That’s pretty much how it feels. If my phone was ringing, just hearing that, you’re like, `Today might be the day.’ It’s the state of the unknown. It’s pretty scary.”
