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PHILADELPHIA — James Harden spent his final hours with the Sixers holding a basketball, and holding it, and holding it, and holding it some more. If it was his way of supplying a career highlight reel, it was perfect.
It happened the other night at the home opener, Harden sitting on the bench but not in uniform, oddly squeezing a spare basketball close to his chest for most of the second half of an impressive Sixers victory. His head covered by a hooded sweatshirt and, in a final act of selfishness, wearing no team gear or colors, he basically sat emotionless, there only to make sure his paychecks didn’t stop landing in his direct-deposit bin.
With Nick Nurse forced to provide cockeyed cover with the silliness that Harden, 34, was in some kind of “ramp up” to a season going on three games old, the presumptive Hall of Famer was trying to do to the Sixers what he long has done to basketball offenses. He was trying to make things stop. He was trying to make sure everything was accommodating to his own desires. He was taking a different kind of a shot.
By Tuesday, the Sixers finally had enough. Unlike last season, when they were stuck with him in their offense, they moved Harden, his basketball, his sweatshirt, his misery index and P.J. Tucker to the franchise where all championship hopes go to die, the Loss Angeles Clippers. There, he can join Russell Westbrook in something of a last-decade tribute band and compete with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George to see who can miss the most games. Hurry, tickets will go fast.
To a point, Harden – as he typically does – got his way. Having been exposed as ill-fitting in an offense with Joel Embiid, he had signed a one-year deal for $35.7 million, demanded a trade anyway, attacked the character of Daryl Morey and personal-issued his way out of most of training camp. So, as the Rockets and Nets relatively recently did, the Sixers gave him what he wanted just to disinfect their program.
That was the original plan – kind of – when Morey dumped the even more selfish and less talented coach-destroyer Ben Simmons on Brooklyn. The Sixers had a under-postseason-performing drain on their salary who was refusing to play, and had to make a change. By then, the Nets were just happy to dump Harden, their own miserable guard, on Morey in a longshot stab at improvement. It’s been said the best trades help both teams. Rare are the kind that damage both, but the Sixers and Nets managed to pull that one off.
Though Harden posted some numbers in his year-plus with the Sixers, he was as feared: A dribble-addicted impediment to offensive flow. No longer the shooter he was in his prime and, as a result, less likely to receive platinum-level treatment from refs no longer quick to play along with his flopping and foul-shot begging, Harden’s decline was severe. Always blessed with good vision, he did lead the league in assists, so there was that. But he never sounded truly comfortable with being the set-up man for Embiid, defaulting only to the explanation that his declining offense was a function of his willingness to do whatever Doc Rivers had asked. Harden’s occasional boxscore glow aside, the day-to-day aura around the team was that no one was fully comfortable with what he was supplying.
In his defense, Harden did not outwardly spread stress last season. He was known to be a professional boost to the point-guard development of Tyrese Maxey. Even in his diminished professional state, he was more of a help than Simmons to an offense. And the Sixers had learned to fail in the playoffs long before his arrival, so he couldn’t be blamed for the annual early exits. It’s just that he was never committed to anything except what was best for James Harden, whether that meant dribbling down the shot clock, driving into the lane and attempting to make shots he was no longer young enough to make or, in the end, effectively boycotting training camp.
For that, the Sixers can move on. Nurse deserves that. Fortunately for him, he is no longer locked into Tucker, either, and will not have to spend the next six months explaining the hidden charms of a starting forward who supplies about one basket a night. And Maxey, who just snagged an Eastern Conference Player of the Week citation, can continue to grow at the point away from Harden’s shadow.
The Sixers are off to a 2-1 start, playing inspired team defense and displaying dramatically improved ball movement. Yes, it’s very early. But it has looked different without Harden.
“I mean, the ball movement and the pace that we’re playing at is fast,” Embiid said after the last game, the one Harden sat and watched. “The ball is moving. Guys are cutting.”
Beats sitting there with a basketball and not moving at all.
Contact Jack McCaffery at jmccaffery@delcotimes.com
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