PHILADELPHIA — During James Harden’s introductory news conference with the 76ers back in February of last year, two quotes — one from Harden himself, one from someone else — should have given everyone who was paying attention an indication of how his tenure with the team would go.
At one point, Harden said that he “knew for a really long time that this was a perfect fit.” It was a curious thing for him to say, given that, for the previous couple of years, Harden hadn’t spent a really long time doing much of anything other than failing to find a perfect fit for his style of play and his ego.
The Rockets hadn’t fit anymore. The Nets didn’t fit anymore, if ever. And there was only one way that the Sixers were going to fit: Harden would have to become a quasi-point guard, be more of a facilitator than a scorer, and defer to Joel Embiid. As it turned out, he did that last season, and he considered it so much of a sacrifice to give away his prized “basketball freedom” that he has decided he’d rather play somewhere else.
