Former NBA MVP James Harden made his situation with the Philadelphia 76ers much more complicated on Monday, with the superstar guard openly calling Daryl Morey a “liar” during an Adidas event in China.
The usually quiet Harden went all out with his statement about Morey and made sure to be clear by repeating his statement while knowing he was being recorded.
Over the weekend, it was reported that the 76ers had stopped trade talks with the Los Angeles Clippers and other interested teams and are content with bringing the disgruntled Harden into training camp the same way they did with Ben Simmons a few years ago.
This isn’t the first time that Morey has gone through this process and been criticized for how he does his job, but Harden openly bashing him in public is a first, and it appears there could be more of this in the coming months.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Harden’s goal is to make the organization as uncomfortable as possible, via NBACentral.
“James Harden’s goal is to make the Sixers so uncomfortable that they just decide that they cannot bring him back.”
– @wojespn pic.twitter.com/wvKPqlImpx
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) August 14, 2023
Professionalism has gone entirely out of the window in this situation, and it seems more like a spoiled child not getting what he’s used to getting and creating chaos as a result.
The crucial part of this situation is Harden not thinking for a second that this makes him less desirable on the trade market, as teams may not want to deal with an ego like this for a player who is arguably one the downside of his career and doesn’t seem to care about staying in shape.
It’ll be interesting to see how all this pans out because, right now, it doesn’t look pretty.
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James Harden Sends Interesting Message After Rant Against Daryl Morey