James Harden’s Sixers era: A timeline of an eventful, tumultuous Philly tenure

by Gina Mizell
Published Nov. 2, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET

James Harden’s Sixers era is over, after the trade with the Los Angeles Clippers became official Wednesday afternoon.

JUMP TO SECTION

The Harden era begins

Bumps in the road

Harden’s resurgence

The beginning of the end

Harden was in Philly for less than a year and a half. But that period was eventful.

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He occasionally flashed the scoring that made him an MVP and first-ballot Hall of Famer, but consistently struggled with his burst to get by defenders and finish at the basket. He thrived as a playmaker, leading the NBA in assists (10.7 per game) last season while setting personal milestones.

But he will likely be most remembered for this tumultuous ending, when he requested a trade, called president of basketball operations Daryl Morey a “liar” when it initially went unfulfilled and sporadically participated with his team until being moved.

Here is a timeline of the best — and worst — moments from Harden’s time in Philly.

The Harden era begins

February 10, 2022: Arrival in blockbuster trade

After the months-long Ben Simmons holdout, Morey finally pulled off the reunion he coveted by acquiring Harden from the Brooklyn Nets.

It was that trade deadline’s biggest move. And it was a callback to a terrific partnership with the Houston Rockets, where Harden morphed into an MVP and scoring champion and Morey became lauded for his creative and aggressive roster-building.

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Harden, who had forced his way out of Houston early in the 2020-21 season, had also turned disgruntled with the Nets’ could-have-been super team. Kyrie Irving was prohibited from playing games in New York City because he had refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19, while Kevin Durant struggled with injuries. As the trade deadline approached, Harden became visibly disinterested on the court, and Morey pounced.

At the time, it looked like Morey’s patience in waiting for the right trade for Simmons had paid off. And when Harden arrived in Philly, he claimed at his introductory news conference that he had wanted to be with the Sixers (aka, not the Nets) all along.

February 25, 2022: Dazzling debut

Following the All-Star break, Harden was fantastic in his initial stretch with the Sixers.

In his debut at the Minnesota Timberwolves, he scored 27 points on 5-of-7 shooting from three-point range, and added 12 assists, eight rebounds — and one meme-able reaction to Joel Embiid chugging a crinkling water bottle.

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Harden followed that up with a triple-double against the Knicks — 29 points, 16 assists, 10 rebounds and five steals (?!) — with Sixers fans invading Madison Square Garden for a weekend matinee. Then, in his home debut, Harden finished with 26 points, nine rebounds and nine assists in a rematch against New York.

May 8, 2022: Return of the step-back

Harden briefly returned to his vintage step-back form in Game 4 of their second-round series against the Miami Heat. He went 6-of-10 from beyond the arc as part of a 31-point, seven-rebound, nine-assist performance.

That evened that series, 2-2, with Embiid on the mend from an orbital fracture. But then…

Bumps in the road

May 15, 2022: ‘The ball didn’t get back to me’

With the Sixers’ season on the brink, Harden scored just 11 points on nine shots in a dispiriting Game 6 loss to the Heat. When asked why he only took two shots in the second half, his response was, “the ball didn’t get back to me.”

In those 12 playoff games, Harden averaged 18.6 points on 40.5% shooting, 8.6 assists and 5.7 rebounds.

July 24, 2022: The pay cut

Just before free agency began, Harden decided to decline his $47.3 million player option for the 2022-23 season, giving the Sixers the financial flexibility to sign former teammates P.J. Tucker and Danuel House Jr. Harden instead signed a new “one-plus-one” deal for $33 million in 2022-23, and a $35.6 million player option for the following season.

The Sixers were dinged with a tampering punishment for too-early contract conversations with Tucker and House. That has been cited as a reason why, nearly a year later, Harden felt like the Sixers “ghosted” him during the period between the end of the 2022-23 season and the start of free agency.

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James Harden saga

How Sixers learned about Harden trade

Harden deal gives Morey assets to star hunt

Key to harden deal who they had: Maxey

Trade Grades: How did Sixers fare?

 

Despite the Sixers’ loss to open the 2022-23 season, Harden looked healthy and rejuvenated while putting up 35 points on 5-of-9 shooting from long range, eight rebounds and seven assists.

The most notable part of an early November loss to the Washington Wizards was Harden’s noticeable limp while in the locker room. He had sustained a right foot tendon strain, which kept him sidelined for about a month.

Harden’s return from injury — and to his former home — was dreadful. He went 4-of-19 from the floor, and did not make a shot from two-point range, in the Sixers’ double-overtime loss to the lowly Rockets.

Harden also missed two shots with the score tied in the final minute of regulation, including a step-back three that was blocked by Kevin Porter Jr. That was reportedly at the root of the rift between Harden and former Sixers coach Doc Rivers, who called Harden out for those shots (and not feeding Embiid) during a team film session.

New statistical benchmarks are rare at this point of Harden’s career. But he recorded a career-high 21 assists as part of a triple-double (20 points, 11 rebounds) against his new team, which helped the Sixers rally from 20 points down in the first half to win.

Less than two hours before a high-profile Christmas Day game at the New York Knicks — and during the pregame locker-room period that is open to the media — ESPN dropped a story that Harden was considering returning to the Rockets in free agency.

Harden was dismissive of the piece immediately after it dropped, and during his postgame news conference after totaling 29 points and 13 assists in a Sixers win. But that uncertainty about Harden’s future hovered for the rest of the season, and into the beginning of the offseason.

» READ MORE: The Sixers wanted Jrue Holiday. Daryl Morey’s goal was to give himself a chance at the next one.

This outing made Harden the first Sixer to record multiple 20-assist games in one season, balancing a night when he shot just 3-of-11 from the floor.

With Embiid sidelined with a knee sprain, Harden’s 45 points on 7-of-14 shooting from three-point range — including a go-ahead step-back over Al Horford with 8.7 seconds to play — propelled the Sixers to a Game 1 victory of what would become a seven-game series against the Celtics. That point total matched his career high in the postseason. And after the game, Harden acknowledged it felt satisfying to return to his bucket-getting form.

He also dropped 42 points in Game 4 of that series, including a tying floater in regulation and the game-winning corner three-pointer in overtime.

But then …

Harden shot a combined 7-of-27 in Games 6 and 7 against the Celtics, a significant reason the Sixers blew a 3-2 series lead and face-planted in Game 7. Those turned out to be the final games he would play in a Sixers uniform.

Most outsiders expected Harden to decline his player option for 2023-24, allowing him to either sign with the Rockets as an unrestricted free agent or negotiate a new deal with the Sixers. Instead, Harden opted into his contract for the season — and simultaneously requested a trade to his preferred destination, the Clippers. The decision even shocked those inside the Sixers organization.

After the Sixers and Clippers could not gain legitimate traction on a trade at the beginning of the player transaction cycle, the Sixers reportedly halted talks and expected Harden to be on the roster at the start of training camp.

Days later, Harden called Morey a “liar” and said he would “never be a part of an organization that he is a part of” while in China promoting his basketball shoe line. The NBA investigated the root of those comments, then fined Harden $100,000 for “indicating that he would not perform the services called for under his player contract unless traded to another team.”

Harden was absent for the team’s media day, and for their first practice at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo. He did arrive for the second team session, and was cordial and engaged while participating in some aspects, according to teammates and coach Nick Nurse.

» READ MORE: The Sixers will stockpile assets in the James Harden trade. How could they cash those in?

Harden somewhat abruptly held his first (and only) media session with local reporters following a preseason practice in Camden.

He called his relationship with Morey irreparable, and compared it to losing trust in a marriage. He said he planned to play basketball, and was ramping up to play in the Sixers’ preseason finale (he didn’t). He praised Nurse’s coaching style and philosophies.

He never spoke publicly again before the trade.

Harden unexpectedly left the Sixers for about 10 days, for what the team later defined as “personal reasons.” Discussions between the Sixers and Clippers were still stalled, but a source told The Inquirer then that the organization was “bracing for turbulence” based on Harden’s past behavior when he wanted out of Houston and Brooklyn.

Harden rejoined the Sixers the day before their season opener at the Milwaukee Bucks, but was instructed to stay in-market to work with the team’s staff to reignite his ramp-up to playing in games. The Sixeers lost by one point to the Bucks and won in Toronto, before Harden sat on the bench for his team’s win over the Portland Trail Blazers in their home opener.

The Harden saga finally ended around 2 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday, when news popped that the Sixers and Clippers had agreed on the trade that would send Harden (along with P.J. Tucker and Filip Petrusev) to Los Angeles. The trade became official Wednesday afternoon.