James Harden and the Philadelphia 76ers have had a tumultuous offseason. He has an active trade request the team is reportedly working to fulfill. He skipped the team’s Media Day earlier in October before ultimately showing up to training camp. Ever since then, he has been a model teammate and a professional.
However, there are still issues between Harden and the Sixers organization. Harden spoke to reporters after Friday’s practice for the first time since returning to the Sixers. He began by addressing the overall situation, including praising the fans, via Ky Carlin of Sixers Wire:
“Just to the fans, man, I appreciate the support and love. It’s definitely a difficult time. For me, it’s just trusting people that you’ve known over a decade and when I got traded here, I wanted to retire a Sixer. I wanted to be here and retire a Sixer, and the front office didn’t have that in their future plans,” Harden said. “It’s literally out of my control. It’s something I didn’t want to happen to be in this position, but I gotta make a decision for my family. I understand this is a business. It’s just as simple as that. I come in here today, I work my butt off, and do the things necessary as a professional as I’ve been doing for 15 years.”
The gulf between Harden and the Sixers organization is a direct result of how his contract negotiations were handled this offseason. Harden and Sixers’ president of basketball operations Daryl Morey have a long relationship dating back to their time together in the Houston Rockets organization. Their relationship is now severed. Harden ultimately opted into his $35.6 million player option and requested a trade.When asked if the relationship between himself and the front office can be repaired, Harden had this to say:
“No. When you—and this is not about this situation. This is in life. When you lose trust in someone, it’s like a marriage, when you lose trust in someone, you know what I mean? It’s pretty simple.”
The relationship between Harden and the Sixers front office is broken beyond repair. He is still requesting to be traded. However, he was more diplomatic about it after being fined $100,000 by the NBA in August over his public trade demand.
“You gotta talk to the front office about that,” Harden said. “I’ve just been here working my butt off and I love the game of basketball so I’m just in the gym putting the work in. It’s all I can control.”
Trade talks with the Los Angeles Clippers, the lone suitor for Harden’s services, are ongoing. The Athletic’s Shams Charania and Sam Amick recently reported Harden is playing ball with the Sixers both in order to avoid further fines and in the hopes that cooperating with Philadelphia will help push a trade closer to fruition. Their report also included information about what the Sixers were asking in return for a Harden trade.
“League sources say the Clippers have been talking to several teams about ways to move pick swaps for additional draft capital with the intention of bolstering their offer and getting a deal done.
“The Clippers offered the Sixers an unprotected first-round pick, a pick swap and salaries for Harden in July, league sources say, but Philadelphia has set a much higher threshold. The Sixers have valued fifth-year forward Terance Mann and multiple first-round picks in a potential trade with the Clippers, sources added.”
There has not been much significant movement in the trade talks with the Clippers. However, the Sixers believe Harden’s participation in games will help improve his trade market. Amick reported on Friday the Sixers “believe that it would help Harden’s market – and the leverage element in regard to the Clippers – if he played like his former MVP self and reminded other team’s that he’s worth pursuing.”
For now, Harden appears set to cooperate with the Sixers in hopes of a trade occurring down the line. He spoke on Friday about putting his focus on the things he can control.
“Control what you can control. I’ve been in this league so long and I’ve seen so many different things. I’m here putting work in. that’s all I can do. I work my butt off,” Harden said. “You can say whatever you wanna say about me, but you don’t get this far in this league without putting work in. That’s what I hang my hat on. So whenever things fail or things don’t go how you feel they should go, you just continue to work, and that’s it.”
Harden has not appeared on the court for the Sixers so far this preseason. There are two more chances for him to appear in preseason action. The Sixers have a road matchup against the Brooklyn Nets on Monday. They then wrap up the preseason next Friday with a home game against the Atlanta Hawks. Harden indicated to reporters he plans on playing in the team’s preseason finale.
“I’m still ramping up. Still trying to get myself in the best shape. I feel really, really good, but there’s another level I feel like I can get to, and am gonna get to,” Harden said. “I think there’s one more preseason game after that so I’ll ramp it up and try to play the last one just to get in game situations and used to the physicality of defenders bumping you and whatnot and the speed and tempo and all that good stuff so I think we got a good plan in place.”
The Sixers begin their regular season on Oct. 26 with a road matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks. As of now, it looks like Harden will still be a member of the Sixers to start the season.
