James Harden reportedly plans to skip 76ers training camp and could force another standoff vs. his own team

As was first reported by ESPN and later confirmed by CBS Sports insider Bill Reiter, the Philadelphia 76ers have, at least publicly, ended James Harden trade talks with the Los Angeles Clippers, who simply don’t possess a package of picks and/or young players that can be flipped into the All-Star player Daryl Morey desires in return. 

Now comes this news, via Sam Amick of The Athletic, that Harden, in light of this development that a trade with the Clippers is looking more and more unlikely, intends to pull a training camp no-show. This was previously a successful strategy in these “get-me out-of-this-place” standoffs. 

From The Athletic:

No matter what signals the Sixers might send when it comes to trade talks, a source close to Harden reiterated that the 10-time All-Star and former MVP no longer wants to play for Philadelphia and has no plans of taking part in training camp. 

Does that mean he won’t report if a deal doesn’t go down by that point, or that he’ll make a messy spectacle of his training camp arrival like he did when he was trying to get out of Houston back in December of 2020? That part remains unclear, with Harden’s side still expressing a belief that there will be meaningful developments on the trade talk front before that time comes. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

The situation in Philadelphia is dripping with irony. Harden, the player Morey ultimately netted by standing his ground with Ben Simmons as he ceased to exist as a basketball player under contract for almost $200 million, is now the player pulling the same stunt on Morey. 

The bullet points of the situation are well reported: Harden was, and obviously still is, upset that Morey didn’t give him the long-term, massive-money contract he feels he deserves, especially after he took a salary cut to help the Sixers sign P.J. Tucker last summer. So he wants out. And why not? It worked when he wanted out of Houston. It worked again in Brooklyn. If you keep giving someone their way, they’re going to keep right on taking what you give. 

Morey appears willing to grant Harden’s demand, but only on his own terms. Morey is 100% right in this scenario. His job is to put a contender around Joel Embiid, not coddle poor James Harden, who, let’s not forget, was the one who opted into his $35.6M deal for 2023-24. He didn’t have to do that. If he wanted to play somewhere else, he could’ve turned that down and become a free agent. 

Why didn’t he do that? Because no team — or at least no team Harden wants to play for — was going to pay him that kind of money, because he’s not worth it. So Harden figured he would just secure his money from Philadelphia and then still go play somewhere else. 

The arrogance of some of these guys is startling. This business of signing huge contracts and then putting in your trade demand shortly thereafter is bogus. Contracts are contracts. Nobody forces you to sign them. If you do sign them, then the least you can do is honor them. It’s pretty basic stuff. 

The same goes for Damian Lillard in Portland. If he wanted to go to a new team, he had plenty of chances to do so as a free agent. He never did that. Instead, he kept signing extensions with the Blazers, including the two-year, $122M extension he agreed to just last summer, which guarantees him over $216M from the Blazers over the next four years. 

And he still thinks the Blazers owe it to him not just to trade him, but trade him to the exact team — Miami — that that he wants, even if Miami doesn’t have a trade package anywhere near worth Lillard’s value to the Blazers. It’s garbage. The Blazers don’t owe Damian Lillard a thing. They should trade him when they have a deal that helps them, not him. 

The Sixers should, and apparently intend to, do the same with Harden, who isn’t nearly the player Lillard is at this point. If Harden was worth the money that he believes he deserves, his trade market wouldn’t have tumbleweeds blowing through it. Nobody wants to trade for an aging star who isn’t near the player he used to be, and who wasn’t even a dependable playoff star in his prime, who can also walk as a free agent next summer anyway. 

That’s why Harden is saying where he wants to go, so that the teams who might consider trading for him as a potential one-year rental will know the risk of losing him for nothing, thus limiting his market to the team(s) with whom he would sign a long-term deal. 

It’s all a leverage game. It’s business, it’s how it works, we all get that, but it’s dirty. Borderline cowardly. If NBA fans have a problem with this new age of of superstar team-hopping, I would posit it’s not actually the turnover that bothers them. In fact, I think deep down we all like that. It keeps things fresh. Every year feels entirely different. It’s actually great for the product. But when guys like Harden are scamming the system, pledging contractual loyalty to a team only to then immediately go back on that handshake in an effort to take the money and run elsewhere, that’s when it goes too far.

Not that Harden cares about how fans perceive him. His style of play has been almost universally derided for years. He just keeps piling up numbers, on the court and in his bank account. And it’s clear that is still his only real mission even late in his career. 

That’s his prerogative. His talent, like it or not, provided him a cheat code for manipulating his contractual situation for the bulk of his career. But he’s not that player anymore. Good for Morey for reminding Harden of that fact. I hope he stays firm as he did with Simmons until he gets a deal that helps the Sixers content for a title, which, frankly, Harden never really did for them in the first place.