Former Sixer Andre Iguodala on James Harden’s $100k fine: ‘The team should be fined, too’
"What did James do to get fined?" Iguodala said on the Old Man and the Three podcast. "He said, ‘I was lied to’ ... James Harden made a true statement, so why would he get fined?"
When JJ Redick, Andre Iguodala and Evan Turner — all former members of the 76ers — sat down to talk basketball on Redick’s Old Man and the Three podcast, they were bound to discuss Philly in some capacity.
Turns out they went straight for the hot topics, with Iguodala and Turner speaking freely about “The Process” along with James Harden’s stalemate with the team and president of basketball operations Daryl Morey.
When the conversation between the three NBA veterans veered toward player empowering and supermax contracts, Iguodala, who plays for the Golden State Warriors and is part of players union leadership, started to discuss the rules and how they are set up to save teams from themselves.
Harden was fined $100,000 after calling Morey “a liar” during a tour of China to promote his new sneaker with adidas, suggesting that a promise from the Sixers was not kept.
“Teams should be fined as well when that player’s fined,” Iguodala said. “We all know they changed the rules on when you can start negotiating with players for free agency because everybody had their deal done before free agency. We all know that James was told, ‘You’re going to get this deal ... hush, hush, under the table.’ I wasn’t there, I don’t know what happened, James didn’t tell me this.”
“There’s an assumption,” Redick chimed in.
“The team can always say it was an assumption. What did James do to get fined? He said, ‘I was lied to ...’ James Harden made a true statement, so why would he get fined? I would prefer for the team to be fined $5 million because ... come on, now. We can’t prove it, but that happened. That’s where I get upset and that’s where the supermax [deal] gets in trouble because there’s always going to be that scenario every year with somebody.”
» READ MORE: If James Harden holds out, how would the Sixers handle point guard duties?
For the record, Harden’s comments were investigated and he told the league that Morey lied about quickly finding a trade partner after the point guard opted into his $35.6 million option for the 2023-24 season. Harden denied that there was a “handshake” deal done under the table in the past.
The league previously looked into Harden’s deal and decided to fine the Sixers for tampering, taking away two second-round picks in the 2023 and 2024 drafts. After the investigation, the league believed Harden took a pay cut in order to create salary-cap space for the Sixers to sign P.J. Tucker and Danuel House Jr. in the summer of 2022.