James Harden Did Not Start the Problems for the Philadelphia 76ers

For Philadelphia 76ers followers, that is The Bad Place.

“Disgust among Sixers fans is at one of the highest levels I have ever seen here in Philadelphia,” Joe DeCamara, a Philadelphia radio host, mentioned in a latest interview.

A confluence of misfortune and dangerous technique has virtually left the workforce the place it was in the mid-2000s at the finish of the Allen Iverson period: adrift with no path to contend for a championship. Whatever plans Daryl Morey, the workforce’s president of basketball operations, had when he took over in 2020 appear to have unraveled.

“We feel like people are underrating the Sixers right now,” Morey informed reporters at his introductory information convention, “but we need to go out there and prove it.”

What has been proved, actually, is sort of the reverse, punctuated lately when James Harden, the workforce’s second-best participant, publicly trashed Morey as a part of his quest to power a commerce to a different workforce.

Discontent isn’t new for star gamers, however in the Sixers’ case it has turn out to be very public at a second when their followers are at their wits’ finish. The broader public has developed an urge for food for this model of famous person drama as a result of it pops up each summer time, however the Sixers, maybe greater than different N.B.A. groups, are poorly positioned to plea for persistence as a result of the group has put its followers via a decade of stops and begins, together with the rebuilding plan often called The Process.

Harden’s relationship with the Sixers turned a Good News-Bad News scenario this summer time. The Good: Harden, a 33-year-old guard, opted into the final 12 months of his contract. The Bad: It was on the situation that the Sixers commerce him to the Los Angeles Clippers, based on two folks conversant in the request however not licensed to debate it publicly. To make issues worse, movies that emerged on social media this week appeared to point out Harden disparaging Morey whereas chatting with reporters at an Adidas occasion in China.

“Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of,” Harden mentioned in the movies. Harden’s agent and Adidas didn’t reply to requests from The New York Times searching for to verify the authenticity of the movies. A Sixers spokesperson declined to remark.

The actual nature of Harden’s anger at Morey is unclear, however his displeasure is a rare setback nonetheless. Harden is one among the best offensive gamers ever, and few defenders can guard him alone due to his mixture of ball dealing with and dimension. He is one among a small variety of gamers who can will a workforce to victory by themselves — when he chooses.

Harden and Joel Embiid, the star heart who’s Philadelphia’s finest participant and the reigning Most Valuable Player Award winner, share a few of the accountability for the Sixers’ lack of success. They usually underperform at essential moments in the postseason, and did so once more this spring, when the Sixers misplaced to Boston in the second spherical.

This has introduced much more pessimism to Philadelphia, the place sports-related despair is as important to the metropolis’s id as the hoagie.

“As a fan, it’s simple: I want the team to win,” mentioned Amos Lee, a people singer-songwriter and avid Sixers fan. “I want them to spend all of the money and get all of the best players and put the coolest people on the team and that’s it. But I don’t know what this franchise is.”

Lee added, “It has been for a long time really poorly managed.”

The Sixers haven’t made it to the Eastern Conference finals since 2001, and Doc Rivers, who was employed as head coach a number of weeks earlier than Morey joined the workforce, had a historical past of falling quick in the playoffs. Still, Morey saved him for three seasons. And after Ben Simmons, the star level guard drafted two years after Embiid, demanded a commerce out of Philadelphia, Morey resisted earlier than swinging a commerce for Harden, who was attempting to power his manner off his second straight workforce. Now Philadelphia is his third.

According to an individual conversant in Morey’s considering, the plan stays to convey Harden again after the Sixers ended commerce negotiations with the Clippers after they couldn’t attain what they believed could be an appropriate deal.

That isn’t a plan — that’s unjustified hope. Harden has proven that he’s keen to carry out or loaf on the flooring if he doesn’t get the commerce he desires. And even when Harden returns, the workforce didn’t make any actual enhancements this low season and, actually, misplaced a number of rotation gamers to free company. If the 76ers couldn’t get out of the second spherical final 12 months, how will they do subsequent season with a less-talented workforce and an sad Harden?

If Harden does go, he might be the newest in a string of Sixers stars who’ve left the workforce underneath acrimonious circumstances, stretching again to Charles Barkley in 1992. Before Simmons and Harden, Iverson was annoyed with the franchise when he was traded in 2006, as was Andre Iguodala when he was traded in 2012.

Morey has lengthy proven little curiosity in fielding a struggling workforce. When he was an govt in Houston in 2019, he traded Chris Paul and a number of first-round picks for Russell Westbrook after the Rockets misplaced in the second spherical of the Western Conference playoffs. Before that, Morey dismantled a middling Rockets workforce that included a younger Kyle Lowry. Those strikes allowed the Rockets in 2012 to accumulate the star who would push them towards true rivalry: Harden.

If Morey decides to hit the eject button on the Embiid and Harden period in Philadelphia, after lower than two full seasons, he has proven a willingness to make arduous decisions. But that requires persistence Sixers followers wouldn’t have, and asking the workforce’s possession to just accept a near-term regression and monetary hit whereas they’re planning for a brand new enviornment.

But the clock isn’t just ticking on what to do about Harden. It can be ticking on Embiid. He mentioned lately that he needed to win a championship whether or not it was in Philadelphia “or anywhere else.” He later recommended that he was not serious, although that has not eased the nervousness of some Sixers followers.

On one hand, followers may perceive his restlessness. He has endured a number of totally different entrance workplace heads, a training carousel and sad stars with out even a convention finals look to point out for it. But on the different hand, those self same coaches, executives and teammates have needed to endure his disappointing playoff performances, too.

“They have not done a great job around him,” mentioned Spike Eskin, co-host of “The Rights To Ricky Sanchez,” a Sixers fan podcast that’s unaffiliated with the workforce. “The organization has been a mess for the entirety of his career. But he is as much to blame for their lack of success in the playoffs as anybody is.”

But for now, Morey doesn’t have many choices. That is partly on him. The most suitable choice in a sea of dangerous ones could also be to have interaction in some wishful considering: Maybe Harden reveals as much as camp in nice form and reconsiders his want to depart. Maybe Embiid places collectively one other M.V.P.-level season and doesn’t get damage, as he so usually has.

Maybe they will even get out of the second spherical.