Looks like James Harden hates basketball; Shohei Ohtani is still coming to Philly. Whew.

James Harden is not a bad guy, but he’s done some shady stuff. In an era of unofficial holdouts — Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard, Ben Simmons, and Harden, twice — he’s managed to make himself the poster child for petulance.

James Harden is not dumb, but he’s done some dumb stuff. After declining free agency, he publicly threatened to not honor the $35.6 million contract he opted into, which cost him a $100,000 fine from the NBA, which hardly ever fines guys for saying dumb stuff, because they’d be fining everybody all the time. It is, after all, the NBA.

Harden also called Daryl Morey, his greatest ally these last 10 years, a liar.

This is Brutus-and-Caesar, knife-in-neck betrayal. This is Judas-and-Jesus, kiss-on-cheek betrayal.

In this Harden saga, one thing becomes clearer every day: James Harden doesn’t want to play basketball anymore.

He wants to sit on his ever-enlarging derriere for the next few months, collecting his paycheck and munching bon-bons or whatever. He then wants to get traded at the Feb. 9 deadline to a contender, play about 15 games for his new team before the playoffs begin, then try to fool the next team next summer.

» READ MORE: Hey, James Harden, listen up. My advice: Apologize, and come back to the Sixers. | Mike Sielski

Right now, I believe Harden has no intention of touching a basketball in competition on a consistent basis before spring arrives. He’s trying to strong-arm the Sixers into trading him for pennies on the dollar. The problem is, the only person on the planet who believes Harden is worth anything near $35 million is Morey. That’s why there have been no decent trade offers. And that’s why Harden didn’t test free agency. He knew.

Here’s how it’s going to go:

No matter which team owns his rights when the season starts in late October, Harden will show up, get “hurt,” then linger for weeks and months. He’ll linger in the most outlandish fashions, and with the most outlandish facial hair, but all he’s going to do is linger.

Lately, he’s mostly been a lingerer

He lingered with a bad attitude in Houston. He lingered with a bad hamstring in Brooklyn. In the last three seasons was a one-man James Gang, stealing money from the NBA like it was a Midwestern bank in the 1860s.

Rest assured, he’s going to get his money this time, too. This is his last big payday. More modest paydays will come as long as he remains healthy. So why risk injury trying to guard Jayson Tatum in Boston in December? Why play in some meaningless, in-season tournament before Christmas?

From a business perspective, his is not a horrible plan.

His ball-dominant playing style combined with his late-night partying style makes his 33 years feel like 63 years, and the rules haven’t helped him. Since the NBA instructed officials in 2021 to stop calling fouls on the defense when the offensive player initiates contact, Harden’s free-throw attempts fell from 10.2 to 7.3 per game, emboldening defenders. At the same time, Harden’s legs have slowed. In the eight seasons that preceded 2021-22, Harden averaged 29.3 points. He averaged 21.5 the last two seasons.

Next, they’ll start calling his step-backs as the travels they really are.

He gets tired during games. Always indifferent when not actually dribbling the ball, he’s gotten even ever lazier on defense. He doesn’t push the pace; the Sixers finished 27th in “pace” last season, partly because Joel Embiid doesn’t run fast, but mainly because Harden doesn’t run at all. Houston was 14th in “pace” when Harden won the 2017-18 MVP award.

We get it. Hoop is hard. The floor is hard, the other players are hard, the travel is hard, and playing in Philly is especially hard.

James Harden? He ain’t hard. Not anymore.

He’s as soft as a well-oiled beard.

The best baseball player since Babe Ruth hits Philly on Monday, but that’s all he’ll be doing. Hey, it’s something.

Last week, Ohtani was a top-five Cy Young Award candidate and a lock to win what should be a third straight AL MVP award (Aaron Judge won in 2022 and never threw a pitch). Philadelphia was going to get a glimpse of greatness the game has never before seen; not even Ruth had a season both on the mound and at the plate like Ohtani’s 2023.

However, on Wednesday, Ohtani suffered a torn ligament in his right arm in his 23rd start of the season. His 24th would have come in Philadelphia. Now, it won’t.

Hopefully, he’ll still be in the lineup.

The Angels planned to let Ohtani act as DH when they met the Mets this weekend. If that goes well, he might still be playing when the Angels visit Philly from Monday through Wednesday. It could work. Bryce Harper last year spent six months DH’ing for the Phillies with a torn right UCL. Both are left-handed hitters.

» READ MORE: They’ve gone through it, and are amazed by Bryce Harper’s speedy return: ‘He’s a different breed’

But then, Harper had something to play for. The Phillies stayed in the wild-card race all season.

The Angels were 10½ games out of the AL wild-card race on Thursday, when they announced that Ohtani would continue to play.

But for who? For what?

For Philly, we hope.