NBA fines James Harden $100,000 for comments about Daryl Morey

Author: Editors Desk Source: The Washington Post

August 22, 2023 at 13:32

The NBA fined James Harden $100,000 on Tuesday. (Matt Slocum/AP)

That body of work wasn’t enough for Harden to land a suitable long-term contract from the 76ers, so he was left with the choice of entering unrestricted free agency or picking up his player option.

James Harden’s public feud with Philadelphia 76ers team president Daryl Morey has cost him six figures.

The NBA announced Tuesday that Harden was fined $100,000 following its investigation into comments made by the 10-time all-star during a promotional event in China last week. Harden, who is seeking a trade out of Philadelphia, drew the financial punishment because he had “[indicated] that he would not perform the services called for under his player contract unless traded to another team,” the league said in a statement.

The league added that its investigation, which included interviewing Harden, “confirmed” that his comments about Morey were prompted by his belief that the 76ers “would not accommodate his request to be traded.”

On Aug. 14, Harden, who has sought a trade since picking up his $35.4 million player option for the 2023-24 season in June, ratcheted up the public pressure on Morey to move him.

“Daryl Morey is a liar, and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of,” Harden said. “Let me say that again: Daryl Morey is a liar, and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of.”

The 33-year-old guard averaged 21 points, 6.1 rebounds and a league-leading 10.7 assists per game last season, but the 76ers lost in the second round of the playoffs for the third consecutive year. While Harden had two 40-plus-point performances in second-round wins over the Boston Celtics, he scored 13 points on 4-for-16 shooting in Game 6 and nine points on 3-for-11 shooting in Game 7 as Philadelphia blew a three-games-to-two series lead.

That body of work wasn’t enough for Harden to land a suitable long-term contract from the 76ers, so he was left with the choice of entering unrestricted free agency or picking up his player option. Given that few contending teams had cap space this summer, Harden chose to pick up his option with an eye toward a trade, with the Los Angeles Clippers emerging as early favorites to land him.

However, a trade has yet to materialize. Morey initially insisted on receiving “a very good player or something that we can turn into a very good player” for the 2018 MVP, whose performance has shown signs of age-related decline in recent years. With no offers to their liking, the 76ers decided this month that they wouldn’t trade Harden, prompting his comments in China.

The impasse recalls the 76ers’ standoff with Ben Simmons in 2021, which was ultimately resolved with a February 2022 deal that sent Simmons to the Brooklyn Nets for Harden. Philadelphia will enter this season with a new coach in Nick Nurse after firing Doc Rivers in June, and it faces real pressure to keep a contending-caliber roster around Joel Embiid, the reigning NBA MVP, as he continues through his prime years.

Until this summer’s troubles, Harden and Morey had enjoyed a long and fruitful working relationship.

Morey, as the Houston Rockets’ general manager, landed Harden from the Oklahoma City Thunder in a 2012 blockbuster trade. Harden blossomed into a perennial all-star and eventually an MVP in Houston over the next eight-plus seasons before forcing a trade to the Nets in January 2021. Morey, who joined the 76ers in 2020, acquired Harden from Brooklyn a little more than a year later and signed him to a two-year, $68.6 million contract in July 2022.