James Harden’s days in Philadelphia are unofficially over, with the Sixers star deciding on Thursday to opt into the $35.6 million option on his contract for next season en route to asking for a trade, as The Athletic’s Shams Charania first reported.
According to sources directly involved in the situation on both sides, the Los Angeles native wants to play for the Clippers and the Sixers are already in the process of discussing his desired move. Harden is, according to sources close to him, extremely upset at the way in which the Sixers handled his possible free agency and has made his dissatisfaction clear to the organization.
While it seems likely that he’ll land with the Clippers, it remains to be seen whether his longtime basketball partner, Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey, will grant this unexpected wish. Sources say, however, that there is strong optimism on Harden’s side that it will indeed happen. Both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are said to be on board with the idea of Harden potentially joining their core, according to sources.
Even with the playoff frustrations, and the challenge of sharing the spotlight with someone as dynamic and dominant as reigning MVP Joel Embiid, there was a sense around the league that the chance to contend for his first title again might be enough to bring Harden back. Moreover, many believed that the late-May hiring of Nick Nurse to replace Doc Rivers as coach would lead to Harden re-signing. But in the end, sources involved in the matter say, it was a series of silent Sixers signals sent in recent weeks that compelled Harden to pursue that goal elsewhere yet again.
When Harden decided to take a significant pay cut nearly a year ago, declining his $47.4 million player option with the Philadelphia 76ers in order to sign a one-plus-one deal in which he would be paid $33 million for the 2022-23 campaign, there was a widespread belief that it was a classic case of quid pro quo. Harden would give some money back as a way of helping the Sixers fill out their roster, thereby inching them even closer to a title that has eluded the franchise since 1983 and Harden for his entire professional career (circa 2009). And in the following offseason, many presumed, the 10-time All-Star and former MVP would be handsomely rewarded with a contract more befitting of his future Hall of Fame talents.
If Harden chose to leave, perhaps rejoining the Houston Rockets franchise where Morey brought him to town via trade from Oklahoma City back in 2012 and where Harden was widely known to be strongly considering a return, that would be one thing. But Morey and the Sixers, surely, would make it clear that they wanted him back in a big — and expensive — way this time around. Right?
As it turned out, that league-wide expectation was wildly wrong.
While free agency doesn’t officially begin until Friday evening, a player of Harden’s caliber could typically expect to have some clarity about the incumbent franchise’s intentions long before that time arrives. But in recent weeks and days, sources say, all indications on Harden’s side pointed to the Sixers forcing him to test the market before they would make an offer of any kind. The understandable concern for Harden, sources say, was that Philadelphia was preparing to offer him the kind of short-term, team-friendly contract that wouldn’t come close to reflecting his stature in the league or the level of his current play (he averaged 21 points, a league-leading 10.7 assists and 6.1 rebounds in the regular season; 20.3 points, 8.3 assists and 6.2 rebounds in 11 postseason games). Harden, who hired Troy Payne, Mike Silverman and Brandon Grier of Equity Basketball to be his agents in February after going more than five years without full-time representation, had no interest in being put in that compromised negotiating position. And it would only grow worse as free agency neared.
Sources say the Rockets — with a first-year coach in Ime Udoka, a cadre of young prospects and $64 million in salary cap space to spend — had already chosen not to pursue Harden in free agency in recent weeks and thus eliminated another of his top options. As so many suspected long ago, when the league wide chatter about Harden heading back to the rebuilding Rockets was growing louder by the month, the fit was ultimately deemed incongruous. There is still no shortage of love for Harden and his game among Rockets officials, with owner Tilman Fertitta, his son and liaison, Patrick, and general manager Rafael Stone chief among that group, but the choice was made to take a pass on another Harden chapter.
Harden had serious interest in a pre-Bradley Beal trade to the Phoenix Suns too, with his old friend Kevin Durant known to be in favor of the possible reunion. Harden, who went from LA to Arizona State en route to the NBA and still owns a third home in the Phoenix area, considers the region a third home of sorts and was excited by the notion of heading to the Valley of the Sun. But the Sixers never engaged with the Suns regarding a possible deal, and the Beal trade with Washington emerged before a conversation between Philadelphia and Phoenix was ever had.
Harden was losing leverage by the day. Sources say Morey, meanwhile, insisted that he was choosing not to discuss free agency before it was permitted by league rules, in large part, because of the price that the Sixers paid for doing so previously. And in a most ironic twist, his reasoning was rooted in the moves that Philadelphia had been able to make because of Harden’s choice to take a pay cut.
Just eight months ago, the NBA announced that the Sixers had engaged in premature free agency discussions with P.J. Tucker and Danuel House Jr. before their signings last summer. As a result, they were docked second-round picks in 2023 and 2024. The league’s investigation, it should also be noted, also determined that there was no wrongdoing found relating to Harden’s choice to pass on the $15 million of savings to the Sixers.
No matter the reasoning, Morey’s choice to keep Harden and his camp in the dark regarding the Sixers’ plans had everything to do with Harden’s choice to ask out. And as Morey knows perhaps better than anyone, the prospect of keeping Harden against his wishes — as the Rockets and Brooklyn Nets can attest — is unpleasant at best and untenable at worst. A deal with the Clippers may be the only way to salvage this messy situation.
— The Athletic’s Kelly Iko contributed to this report.
(Photo of James Harden and Daryl Morey: Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
