There may be a way for the 76ers to squeeze success out of the James Harden situation, but it’s hard to see what it is—and the answer, in part, comes down to the old real-estate maxim: location, location, location. Philadelphia is easily caricatured as a negative sports town, but it’s really a city that frisks its own—patting down everyone from superstars to fringe players, looking for any sign of fraudulence. You don’t have to win a title to be beloved in Philadelphia, but you do have to be genuine in your attempt to do it.
Harden forced his way out of Houston and Brooklyn with the basketball version of a sit-in. He was playing but not really there.
He could do that with the Rockets because he was still considered an elite talent, and intelligent fans understood he had driven the franchise as far as he could, and it was time to start over. He was in the same situation Damian Lillard was in this summer; Harden handled it worse, but he could get away with it.
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In Brooklyn, he was (at best) the second-best player, behind Kevin Durant, and the second-most polarizing player, behind Kyrie Irving. He was also playing in front of a fan base with shallow roots.
Philly is different. If Harden ever returns, Philly will boo him from the moment he pulls up to the arena to the moment he leaves the parking lot. It doesn’t matter if fans watch him put up 50 in a game, because they have already seen who he is. He opted in and asked out at the same time, and his gripes aren’t even clear enough for anybody to evaluate their legitimacy. He is playing with the reigning MVP, on a team that could contend if Harden had committed to winning and played like 80% of his old self. Whatever else he wants, nobody wants to hear it.
The Sixers now have a diminishing star accustomed to both adulation and accommodation; a team president, Daryl Morey, who has historically downplayed (though not dismissed) the importance of chemistry; and at least a perception that Joel Embiid is checking his watch, wondering whether it’s time to go. Embiid is 29 with a lengthy injury history. He has been adamant he wants to win a title in Philadelphia, but what if he decides he can’t?
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If Harden plays for the Sixers again, he would have to work hard to win the fans back, and he is the least likely player in the whole league to do that. There is no chance Philly fans embrace him and no real chance he handles the reception well. This is the kind of situation that would tax the relationship skills of any executive—and Harden has already said there is no way he will reconcile with Morey.
Morey’s teams have never made the Finals, but they have been consistently successful for a long time. The challenge for him is that he is no longer miles ahead of the league in statistical analysis, and other teams understand how he operates. They know what he values and can call his bluffs. They can figure out when he really wants to make a trade and when he is asking for far too much so he can say he tried.
Philadelphia was done with Ben Simmons before the 76ers were; you can miss a million shots there, but you can’t be scared to take one. As he looked for a deal, Morey famously told fans to “buckle up.” He said the saga could drag on for four years. He vowed to either keep Simmons or trade him for a “difference-maker,” which turned out to be Harden. He could say all that then because Simmons was 25 and signed to a long-term deal.
Harden is 34 and will be a free agent next summer. Teams understand how he operates, too. In the last five years he has rejected the franchise (Houston) that catered to him, the destination (Brooklyn) he requested when he asked out, the best player (Durant) he has ever played alongside, the best center (Embiid) he ever had and the executive (Morey) who has advocated for him more relentlessly than any other executive has advocated for any other player. If Harden wants the Clippers now, as has been reported, why would any other team expect to get the best version of him? Heck: Why would the Clippers expect that?
As Morey scours the league for a Harden believer, there won’t be many in Philly. The city has a quarterback, Jalen Hurts, who puts winning above all else, and a baseball superstar, Bryce Harper, who has thrived under intense scrutiny since he was a teenager because he never let anyone tell him who he is. They were wired for the city long before they got there. Philadelphia doesn’t need James Harden. Does anyone else?
