PHILADELPHIA — Given the dizzying array of reports attempting to qualify the likelihood of a James Harden trade before Thursday’s deadline, any Sixers fan could be forgiven for wondering if anything is real or if we’re all just living in a fun room in Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse.
At the moment, the barometer looks like something you’d get on an airplane inside a hurricane inside of a black hole. At the moment, it’s readings range from “certainly not” to “probably not” to “well, maybe.” So, in the immortal words of Lloyd Christmas, they’re telling us there’s a ... what?
There are number of different ways to interpret the conflicting messages being sent by the Nets and those speaking anonymously on their behalf. From a macro view, though, there is one scenario in which each of them holds true. The TV Guide version goes something like this: If Harden has decided he does not want to play in Brooklyn beyond this season, the Nets know they need to trade him. If he wants to sign a contract extension to remain with the team, they’d love to have him. Right now, the biggest question in a Harden-for-Ben-Simmons trade is what, exactly, does Harden want?
