The Sixers’ Unraveling Did Not Start With James Harden

For Philadelphia 76ers followers, that is The Bad Place.

“Disgust among Sixers fans is at one of the highest levels I have ever seen here in Philadelphia,” Joe DeCamara, a Philadelphia radio host, stated in a latest interview.

A confluence of misfortune and dangerous technique has nearly left the workforce the place it was within the mid-2000s on the finish of the Allen Iverson period: adrift with no path to contend for a championship. Whatever plans Daryl Morey, the workforce’s president of basketball operations, had when he took over in 2020 appear to have unraveled.

“We feel like people are underrating the Sixers right now,” Morey informed reporters at his introductory news convention, “but we need to go out there and prove it.”

What has been proved, the truth is, is kind of the other, punctuated just lately when James Harden, the workforce’s second-best participant, publicly trashed Morey as a part of his quest to drive a commerce to a different workforce.

Discontent is just not new for star gamers, however within the Sixers’ case it has grow to be very public at a second when their followers are at their wits’ finish. The broader public has developed an urge for food for this model of famous person drama as a result of it pops up each summer season, however the Sixers, maybe greater than different N.B.A. groups, are poorly positioned to plea for persistence as a result of the group has put its followers by means of a decade of stops and begins, together with the rebuilding plan often known as The Process.

Harden’s relationship with the Sixers grew to become a Good News-Bad News state of affairs this summer season. The Good: Harden, a 33-year-old guard, opted into the final yr of his contract. The Bad: It was on the situation that the Sixers commerce him to the Los Angeles Clippers, in line with two folks acquainted with the request however not licensed to debate it publicly. To make issues worse, movies that emerged on social media this week appeared to point out Harden disparaging Morey whereas talking to reporters at an Adidas occasion in China.

“Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of,” Harden stated within the movies. Harden’s agent and Adidas didn’t reply to requests from The New York Times in search of to substantiate the authenticity of the movies. A Sixers spokesperson declined to remark.

The precise nature of Harden’s anger at Morey is unclear, however his displeasure is a unprecedented setback nonetheless. Harden is among the biggest offensive gamers ever, and few defenders can guard him alone due to his mixture of ball dealing with and dimension. He is one in every of a small variety of gamers who can will a workforce to victory by themselves — when he chooses.

Harden and Joel Embiid, the star heart who’s Philadelphia’s finest participant and the reigning Most Valuable Player Award winner, share a few of the duty for the Sixers’ lack of success. They usually underperform at essential moments within the postseason, and did so once more this spring, when the Sixers misplaced to Boston within the second spherical.

This has introduced much more pessimism to Philadelphia, the place sports-related despair is as important to town’s id because the hoagie.

“As a fan, it’s simple: I want the team to win,” stated Amos Lee, a people singer-songwriter and avid Sixers fan. “I want them to spend all of the money and get all of the best players and put the coolest people on the team and that’s it. But I don’t know what this franchise is.”

Lee added, “It has been for a long time really poorly managed.”

The Sixers haven’t made it to the Eastern Conference finals since 2001, and Doc Rivers, who was employed as head coach a couple of weeks earlier than Morey joined the workforce, had a historical past of falling brief within the playoffs. Still, Morey saved him for 3 seasons. And after Ben Simmons, the star level guard drafted two years after Embiid, demanded a commerce out of Philadelphia, Morey resisted earlier than swinging a commerce for Harden, who was attempting to drive his approach off his second straight workforce. Now Philadelphia is his third.

According to an individual acquainted with Morey’s pondering, the plan stays to convey Harden again after the Sixers ended commerce negotiations with the Clippers after they couldn’t attain what they believed can be an appropriate deal.

That is just not a plan — that’s unjustified hope. Harden has proven that he’s keen to carry out or loaf on the ground if he doesn’t get the commerce he needs. And even when Harden returns, the workforce didn’t make any actual enhancements this low season and, the truth is, misplaced a number of rotation gamers to free company. If the 76ers couldn’t get out of the second spherical final yr, how will they do subsequent season with a less-talented workforce and an sad Harden?

If Harden does go, he would be the newest in a string of Sixers stars who’ve left the workforce below acrimonious circumstances, stretching again to Charles Barkley in 1992. Before Simmons and Harden, Iverson was pissed off with the franchise when he was traded in 2006, as was Andre Iguodala when he was traded in 2012.

Morey has lengthy proven little curiosity in fielding a struggling workforce. When he was an govt in Houston in 2019, he traded Chris Paul and a number of first-round picks for Russell Westbrook after the Rockets misplaced within the second spherical of the Western Conference playoffs. Before that, Morey dismantled a middling Rockets workforce that included a younger Kyle Lowry. Those strikes allowed the Rockets in 2012 to amass the star who would push them towards true competition: Harden.

If Morey decides to hit the eject button on the Embiid and Harden period in Philadelphia, after lower than two full seasons, he has proven a willingness to make arduous decisions. But that requires persistence Sixers followers do not need, and asking the workforce’s possession to simply accept a near-term regression and monetary hit whereas they’re planning for a brand new area.

But the clock is not only ticking on what to do about Harden. It can be ticking on Embiid. He stated just lately that he wished to win a championship whether or not it was in Philadelphia “or anywhere else.” He later recommended that he was not severe, although that has not eased the nervousness of some Sixers followers.

On one hand, followers might perceive his restlessness. He has endured a number of completely different entrance workplace heads, a training carousel and sad stars with out even a convention finals look to point out for it. But however, those self same coaches, executives and teammates have needed to endure his disappointing playoff performances, too.

“They have not done a great job around him,” stated Spike Eskin, co-host of “The Rights To Ricky Sanchez,” a Sixers fan podcast that’s unaffiliated with the workforce. “The organization has been a mess for the entirety of his career. But he is as much to blame for their lack of success in the playoffs as anybody is.”

But for now, Morey doesn’t have many choices. That is partly on him. The best choice in a sea of dangerous ones could also be to interact in some wishful pondering: Maybe Harden reveals as much as camp in nice form and reconsiders his need to go away. Maybe Embiid places collectively one other M.V.P.-level season and doesn’t get harm, as he so usually has.

Maybe they will even get out of the second spherical.