ESPN REPORT: THE Philadelphia 76ers Head Coach Has Been Issued A Fine of…
AS HE LEAVES Crypto.com Arena, James Harden seems happy for a guy who had a rough night. On January 17, his Philadelphia 76ers, who are now 28-16 for the season, have just completed a two-game set that saw them sweep the Los Angeles Lakers and the LA Clippers over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. More importantly, though, the team is finally in a position to assess what it could be after superstar Joel Embiid missed 11 of the Sixers’ first 42 games and Harden 15.
Harden tells ESPN as he exits the arena, “This team is definitely the best chance I’ve had to win.” Even though he has the rest of the night off in Los Angeles, he is by himself and takes his time. “It’s not flawless yet,” he remarks. “There is still a lot of communication.
“The faster we can get going and catch a rhythm, we got a really good chance.”
All of this comes from Harden on a night when he only managed six points and nine assists on 1-for-6 shooting, ending a six-game run in which he had averaged double figures in both categories. Throughout his time in Philadelphia, he insisted that he was fine with giving up his offensive game. However, he wanted to ensure that everyone knew that this was a decision,not an outcome.
Harden goes on, back in the arena. He says, “Obviously, I’m capable of [scoring] more,” highlighting his point with a look. “However, I’m playing the correct strategy and taking all necessary steps to prevail. That’s the main focus.”
After finishing with 41 points in 33 minutes, Embiid thanked Harden for “making it easy” for him after the game, and the Sixers prevailed because the Clippers were unable to stop him.
This is as good as it gets in terms of momentum and messaging from Philadelphia’s two superstars, or really from any two superstars. The two players expressing their mutual appreciation for one another. One acknowledging the other’s contribution to the dominating performance.
However, there’s a thin line separating constructive self-talk from talking yourself into something.
Harden stumbled over it the entire season. He believed that general manager of the Sixers, Daryl Morey, would assist him in reproducing the best moments of his career with the Houston Rockets, only this time he would have an MVP-caliber center at his side and a championship coach in Doc Rivers to mentor him.
Morey was not going to stop now, having built his reputation on his belief in Harden. Embiid was aware of Harden’s need and respected his style of play. Rivers did as well, but he realized that skill and conviction aren’t the only factors. A unique combination of timing, sacrifice, and alignment that is difficult to forecast, let alone engineer, produces championships.
However, Harden had also traveled to Philadelphia with the expectation of receiving the same compensation as before. In order for the team to sign veteran forward P.J. Tucker from the Miami Heat, Harden accepted a player option after his first season in Philadelphia that was roughly $14 million less than what he was entitled to.
The Sixers marketed it as “sacrifice” to the general public and Harden, who dutifully repeated it throughout the season.
That night in LA, Harden said, “You have to sacrifice to get to where you’ve never been.” “I’m in a really good space on the court and off the court.”
However, Harden was also astute. He was aware that the Sixers didn’t feel comfortable offering him the opportunity, so he was “sacrificing”according to sources, he was offered a new maximum contract worth up to $270 million because of his performance after being traded by the Brooklyn Nets in the middle of the season. Like he had been evaluating the Nets a year prior when they had offered him a max deal and he had said he wanted to see how things went, they were still evaluating him.
This was more of an unspoken mutual recognition than a sacrifice. They had most likely already given up on the idea of reliving Houston’s heyday. Despite Harden’s suspicions, they played it out, with the Sixers never fully convinced that he was worth the maximum salary he requested.
Thus, the story of “sacrifice” was developed. Everyone found it to be effective up until that point.
Harden was unaware of how little he would have left when everything fell apart.
The first indication that Harden’s “sacrifice” was not valued or rewarded as much as he had hoped came when he was not selected as an All-Star in late January. Harden was shocked by the rejection, according to sources, as he had participated in ten straight All-Star games.
It didn’t help that Harden was a distant fourth among Eastern Conference guards behind Irving, Donovan Mitchell, and Jaylen Brown, while his former Nets teammates Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving had both been voted in as starters by the fans, media, and players.
Nevertheless, according to sources, NBA commissioner Adam Silver was ready to announce him as an injury replacement. All Harden needed to do was promise to show up and participate in the match.
Harden never responded, and days passed. He was sulking.
By the time Harden responded to the invitation, Silver had already moved on, selecting Pascal Siakam of the Toronto Raptors to take Durant’s place in the lineup due to injury.
Harden’s handling of the situation meant that the Sixers did not do much damage control in the aftermath. They publicly defended him and brought the snub’s attention. However, they were also treading carefully.
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They understood, on the one hand, that Harden had to be treated like a superstar in order to perform like one.
However, he had never won a championship playing that way, and he had stated that he wanted to be pushed by a coach like Rivers, so the argument went.
All of that requires time and trust—something the Sixers never truly cultivated.
That respect and trust must be earned by a coach. A participant must have faith in both the speaker and the content being said. When that doesn’t happen, things fall apart quite rapidly.
According to sources, Rivers chastised Harden for making the last three shots in regulation of a double-overtime loss to the youthful and soon-to-be lottery-bound Rockets in mid-December. Not because Rivers didn’t think Harden could make the last three shots; rather, he had given him the freedom to direct the offense and make his own calls on the court.final play of regulation by allowing a defensive rebound to go without a timeout. It’s because Harden was shooting poorly (4-for-19) and the Rockets had no answer for Embiid (39 points) the entire game.
