EXCLUSIVE: Montrezl Harrell's tell-all with Jason Cadee

• Montrezl Harrell averaged 20.5 points and 9.3 rebounds for the Adelaide 36ers last season, making the All-NBL Second team
• Harrell's contract was terminated by the 36ers after issues surrounding a positive drug test in China
• 'How does this happen?': Jason Cadee shocked by Harrell release
• Adelaide 36ers survive as Bryce Cotton fouls out in overtime win against Melbourne United

Former NBA Sixth Man of the Year Montrezl Harrell is hurt and his “chest starts to get real tight” by the way his contract was terminated by the Adelaide 36ers before the start of the NBL26 season.

The emotion was real – and still raw – as Harrell, 31, explained how the 36ers and its fans rekindled his love of the game after coming back from an ACL injury in NBL25 only for his second season to end in controversy and confusion of a marijuana suspension by the Chinese Basketball Association.

"I give it to Matt (Weston), bro. He was definitely adamant throughout the whole thing, trying to help the situation and trying to figure out what actually was going down," Harrell told former 36ers teammate Jason Cadee in the latest, most anticipated, episode of Cut to the Jase.

"If anybody who was trying to figure it out, it was him... He definitely did the work of trying to get it handled or at least figure out what actually is going to transpire in it. But when it started to come down to the situation and to the point where he started to see that the people that he actually knew really couldn't do nothing with the situation... they kick me.

"This is the thing that rubbed me wrong with it.

“You send my agent a termination letter and give me a time period on that same day telling me I have to sign it, and if I don't sign it, you just going to terminate my contract. 

WATCH THE FULL EPISODE IN THE PLAYER ABOVE

“We didn't come to no agreement on parting ways, bro. They terminated my (contract) and signed somebody that same day, bro.

"So, that's where my animosity rubs. That's where my chest starts to get real tight now. I start to, you feel me, get real aggressive because you was with me, I stuck up for the club and took a suspension for three days for somebody pushing you, Matt. I took that suspension for you.

"Y'all telling me we family, we this and that and that's what rubs me wrong, bro... because I gave y'all all of me. Every time I laced up my shoes on that court, Adelaide got everything I had.

"Y'all got everything I had and y'all taught me and made me feel a love for the game of basketball again, bro, when I was in a real dark place, that will never change. But as I was done on the way out, that's f****d up, bro."

Harrell was suspended for three games in NBL25 after an on-court melee turned into a behind-the-bench blow-up between the 36ers and a fan, who was ejected and later suspended from John Cain Arena.

Harrell also revealed what was behind the severity of his three-month drug ban – a bizarre and frustrating timeline of miscommunication, no communication and confusion. Former teammate Cadee was also skeptical in September at the time of the announcement.

"It wasn't something that was actually sent to me," Harrell told basketball.com.au about the breach notice from the CBA that he had failed a drugs test. The positive test was for marijuana, which Harrell has a doctor’s certificate to take.

"I kind of sent (the article) to my agent and he was like 'yeah, I seen it around the same time it kind of came out'.

"But it didn't bother anything, that's the crazy thing about it. Like it didn't hinder anything, it didn't stop me from playing in Puerto Rico or anything. I didn't stop playing in Puerto Rico because I had a positive test in China, I stopped playing in Puerto Rico because I signed to play in the Big3 before all of it, and that was a commitment I had before then.

"That's all I heard from it... it wasn't presented to me in the email, it wasn't written to me, it wasn't nobody that I talked to from China that let me know 'hey, you failed a test and this has to happen'. It was no line of communication like that.

"No communication went through to my agent or me. We didn't start having to deal with anything as far as backfiring from China until I got over to Australia."

Harrell said those communication issues along with authorities from China reportedly talking to someone they thought was him and his team made his ban longer compared to others, who have served only one-month suspensions from positive tests of the same substance.

"It was nobody from China (who communicated), nobody from Australia. You got to think I signed back to Adelaide in May. So I had the whole entire summer for them to say something or if something was going to be an issue," he said.

"(If it was a) time suspension or whatever the case may be. I could have served that and we wouldn't have had this issue. But nothing was said, it was never a issue.

"The thing what kills it is... like how it's perceived is like hey they contacted me and I just declined to do anything for them... That was never the case, I never got any contact from them until stuff started to snowball.

"I get (to Adelaide), I practice with the team for like two or three days, literally ramping up to to play Panathinaikos and everything and then that's when it starts to get weird you feel me? Matt (Weston) texts me and says I can't be around the team, I can't participate because of the stuff in China."

Asked if authorities in China thought they were communicating with someone that wasn't him, Harrell said that was the whole issue that kicked everything off.

"They thought they had like messaged me or contacted me to let me know that I failed and then I just said no I don't want to test my second sample or whatever the case may be," he said.

"(It) never was me. Never was me... Still to this day, I have no clue (who they were talking to)."

Harrell said the communication dilemma "blew" his mind considering you need to give updated contact details when drug tested.

The Adelaide 36ers were contacted for comment before publishing.

Soon after, the former Louisville Cardinals college basketball star found out he would be banned for three months and that's when the complications with his 36ers contract forced the club into releasing the popular NBL star.

Harrell, who was an All-NBL Second Team member for season after averaging 20.5 points and 9.3 rebounds for the 36ers, said he still loved the NBL, even watching it more than the NBA, and hoped to return as soon as next season.

Despite the acrimonious exit, Harrell, who previously promised to return to the NBL, remains passionate about the 36ers winning the NBL26 title for its fans and the club.