If recent comments by James Harden are accurate, the 76ers either believed they were going to receive a king’s ransom in a potential trade for the guard or took their sweet time finding the right deal. Regardless, Harden, who ultimately got his wish to be traded to the Clippers granted, had some choice words for his former team.
Harden addressed his decision to opt into his player’s option for the 2023–24 season with Philadelphia during an interview with The Athletic’s Sam Amick, admitting that the free-agency market likely would have left him “looking Philly in the face again.” And when the NBA insider asked about playing the waiting game on a potential trade, Harden said the 76ers told him a trade would happen within 10 days.
“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.
Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
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.
