When asked where it all went wrong between James Harden and the Philadelphia 76ers, former Sixers coach Doc Rivers pointed to one specific moment last season. According to Doc, Harden was hurt by not making the cut for the 2023 All-Star game and it changed his entire perspective on the situation in Philly.
“I would say not making the All-Star team really bothered him,” said Doc. “And I thought that it was egregious that coaches didn’t put him on. He was only leading the league in assists, he was having the best three-point percentage shooting year of his career, he was averaging +20 and the coaches didn’t put him on the All-Star team. He would never say this but in my gut, I thought it changed almost immediately. I remember a game or two after that, he called me and said he wanted to play with the second unit more. He wanted to go back to attacking and playing.”
"Our relationship, it was an honest one. It's probably why I'm doing TV."
-Doc Rivers details his relationship with James Harden, and shares at what point things changed for James last season#brotherlylove pic.twitter.com/Jg0KpWy04T
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) October 25, 2023
Rivers coached the Sixers for several years under Daryl Morey, and he was the guy who led Philly last season, during Harden and Embiid’s first (and likely only) full run together. And while Harden was happy to play a facilitator role initially, things started to change as the season progressed. Missing the All-Star team was really just the final straw for James, who requested a trade out of town just a few months later.
Should Harden Have Been An All-Star?
It’s obvious to tell that Harden is not the player he once was. From 2012 to 2019, the guy was nothing short of a superstar for the Rockets and was in the MVP discussion for multiple years in a row. The best stretch of his career came in this period when he averaged 29.6 points, 7.7 assists, and 1.8 steals per game over 621 games. In 2018, he reached his absolute peak with a season-scoring average of 30.4 points per game which helped him secure his first and only MVP award.
Compare those numbers to his contributions in Philly, and the differences are almost night and day. With 21 points per game and 10.7 assists, Harden became a playmaker in Philadelphia and took a major step back in terms of scoring the ball. Couple that backslide with his continued struggles on defense, and it starts to make sense why James missed the cut for last season’s All-Star team.
No Going Back For The 76ers
After a back-and-forth war between Harden and Daryl Morey, things have stretched beyond the point of no return. If Harden’s claims about Morey being a lair showed us anything, it’s that Harden has burned all bridges with the Sixers and there’s no going back. It’s personal now for James, and we’ve seen in the past (in Houston and Brooklyn) how successful he can be at forcing his team’s hand.
Already we’re seeing the early stages of a breakup happening before our very eyes. Despite the former MVP showing up to practice this week, the Sixers have told him to essentially go back home as they double down their efforts to find the guy a new home. It could take some time for a trade to take place, but if Harden wants to make the All-Star team this year, and secure his NBA future, then he better hope that a deal happens soon or things could get really ugly over the next few weeks and months.
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