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.
