How did perhaps the NBA's tightest superstar-GM partnership sour so quickly and publicly? FOX Sports spoke to nearly a dozen people connected to James Harden, Daryl Morey and the 76ers to find out.
asked Daryl Morey for a favor was during the 2012-13 season, not long after the star guard had arrived in Houston. It was a small request.As the years went on, though, these sorts of back-and-forths between Morey and Harden became more frequent, more collaborative. There were players Harden liked, and players he didn't; coaches he wanted brought in and coaches he wanted let go.Morey respected Harden's perspective and basketball intelligence.
Each side has an agenda, each corner will tell you why it's the other corner's fault. And while there's plenty of blame to go around, the true answer is there is no one to blame. Because the reality is the very traits which allowed their partnership to thrive were always destined to one day drive them apart.The seeds of the breakup were planted last offseason. Harden and the Sixers agreed he would take a nearly $15 million pay cut for the benefit of the team.
Harden turned 34 years old in August. He has a history of nagging injuries. He's clearly no longer the explosive athlete he once was. Then, five years later, Morey traded Battier back to Memphis. Battier, whose wife was pregnant, was furious; the deal temporarily broke their friendship.working on a story on how he operates as a boss
Would they have taken such a stance if they believed the Rockets — or another team — were pursuing Harden in free agency? Even in private, the Sixers insist this was not a negotiation tactic, not that they would admit it if it was. From here is where the"he-said, he-said" saga becomes even more tangled. People in touch with Harden say that focusing on the exact numbers misses the point. No, they maintain, what angered Harden the most, what hurt him the most, was that Sixers never actually did make clear that they wanted him back.
The truth, as is usually the case in these sorts of spats, likely likes somewhere in the middle. The result, though, was that at some point the communication between the two sides broke down and so on June 29 — one day before free agency's official start — the Sixers learned Harden was picking up his player option. He had no intention of playing for the Sixers, and specifically a Daryl Morey-run team, ever again.
Three months have passed since Harden's request. The Sixers say they've been unable to find a deal, precisely because Harden is so good. But he also added, when asked when he found out Harden wouldn't be showing up to media day, and in another not-so-veiled shot at Harden's camp:"We've had conversations with his representation. I don't think they knew their plan."Later Monday, the Sixers boarded a plane for Colorado for training camp, which opens Tuesday on the campus of Colorado State University. There, Nick Nurse, their new head coach, will begin installing his schemes.
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