Report: NBA might investigate Sixers, Rockets for James Harden’s recent claims
Maybe the third time will be the charm for the league office?
More than a month removed from getting traded to the Los Angeles Clippers, James Harden is still somehow causing headaches for the Sixers. He recently told Sam Amick of The Athletic that Sixers team president Daryl Morey had promised him a max contract at some point prior to last year’s playoffs, although a team source denied that claim to Amick.
The NBA has already investigated whether the Sixers promised Harden a max as a quid pro quo for declining his $47.4 million player option ahead of the 2022 offseason and taking $14.4 million less by re-signing on a two-year, $65.6 million deal. The league office revisited that investigation when Harden called Morey a liar this past offseason, but Harden said the “liar” comments were in reference to his then-unresolved trade request.
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That might not stop the league from investigating the Sixers for a third time, though. Longtime NBA insider Marc Stein wrote Wednesday that “no rulings have been revealed yet, but the league office has been forced to consider taking another investigative look at James Harden’s past two free-agent summers” in the wake of his comments to Amick.
“A Sixers source this week refuted Harden’s claim to The Stein Line, but it’s reasonable to believe that league officials—who have already docked a second-round draft pick from the Sixers for their dealings that summer—will elect to revisit the issue,” Stein added.
On the bright side, the Sixers might not be the only ones in hot water thanks to Harden’s comments to Amick.
In early October, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said Harden “talked himself out of a max deal” with the Houston Rockets “because he went in there talking about how he wanted to return to being a scoring champion.” Amick specifically asked Harden about that report, to which Harden replied:
“Where is the personnel for that on that team? And in the last three or four years, what have I been trying to accomplish (in terms of playmaking)?
“You can answer that for yourself. Now the meeting was had, and those conversations about style of play, how I’ve been playing and things like that (took place). But (the idea of) me going out there and averaging 30-something points a game who wants to do that?
