This used to be an ideal week for James Harden. He not has to play for the Phliadelphia 76ers, who traded him to the Los Angeles Clippers within the early hours of Tuesday morning in a blockbuster deal, and he not has to paintings together with his former good friend, Daryl Morey.
Throughout coaching camp and the start of the common season, the entire verbal exchange the Sixers had with Harden’s camp ran via his agent, Michael Silverman, according to Ramona Shelbourne. That could also be the nearest Morey ever will get to contacting Harden once more.
Harden feels very another way concerning the dissolution in their basketball marriage. He hasn’t spoken to Morey in months, assets informed ESPN. He has informed buddies he doesn’t intend to speak to him ever once more.
“This is not even about this situation,” Harden informed journalists in Philadelphia on Oct. 13, his best public feedback all through his short-lived stint in Sixers coaching camp. “This is in life. When you lose trust in someone, it’s like a marriage. You lose trust in someone.”
Harden may have grow to be an unrestricted loose agent this summer time, nevertheless it temporarily become transparent that the contract he used to be hoping for used to be now not there. While the Sixers would have reportedly presented him max cash, it used to be just a two-year deal with a workforce possibility for the second one season. Instead, Harden made up our minds to pick out up his $35.6 million participant possibility and ask for a business — particularly to the Clippers.
As days became weeks, and weeks became months, Harden become annoyed. He lashed out in public, again and again calling Morey a “liar.” First, at an match in China, and later by means of an indication in a membership. While in China, Harden additionally stated he would “never be part of an organization that he’s a part of,” which helped earn him a $100,000 fantastic from the league.
Harden then skipped the Sixers’ media day, participated sparingly in coaching camp and didn’t play a unmarried minute within the preseason. When he in spite of everything returned to Philadelphia forward of the workforce’s season opener as opposed to the Milwaukee Bucks, he used to be informed he may now not trip with the workforce, which used to be the overall straw between all events.
In the tip, Harden’s plan to make the location uncomfortable pressured the group’s hand, and were given him a business to the Clippers. It seems it additionally introduced an enduring finish to his courting with Morey.