If James Harden’s recent remarks are true, the 76ers either took their sweet time locating the best deal or thought they would be receiving a king’s ransom in exchange for the guard. In any case, Harden had some harsh words for his former team after finally receiving his wish to be traded to the Clippers.
In an interview with Sam Amick of The Athletic, Harden talked about his choice to exercise his player’s option for the 2023–24 season with Philadelphia, acknowledging that he would have likely been left “looking Philly in the face again” if he had chosen to enter the free-agency market. Harden added that the 76ers assured him a trade would occur in ten days when the NBA insider questioned about waiting to play the waiting game on a possible deal.
“No, I wasn’t sweating. It was just patience, because the day that I opted in, there was a conversation and communication [with the Sixers] about it being a 10-day process. This was gonna happen within 10 days, and then it got dragged out for 4 1/2 months or however long it was,” Harden told Amick.
The 34-year-old guard was critical of how he says things played out and added that he believes Philly made the situation “look crazier than what it was.”
“So at that point, you’re holding my life up, holding everybody else’s life up. You’re making it look crazier than what it is …” Harden told Amick.
Although we likely will never know what transpired behind closed doors, Harden’s claim about the apparent 10-day timeline is eye-opening. Sixers president Daryl Morey has never appeared likely to expedite a trade simply to get a deal done, and as we saw with Harden, that turned out to be true.
