Early Monday morning on August 14, 2023, James Harden re-entered the never-ending NBA news cycle, as footage of him speaking to a group of campers during the last leg of his China trip went viral.
In the clip, the Beard can be heard disparaging Philadelphia 76ers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey, calling him a liar more than once.
While context around the snippet has yet to be revealed, the video was verifiable enough that noted NBA news-breaker Shams Charania of FanDuel sports posted it to X — formerly known as Twitter — with the following quotation: “Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of. Let me say that again: Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of.”
Harden’s preexisting relationship with Morey in their joint time together with the Houston Rockets was a big reason why Harden pushed his way out of the Brooklyn Nets and onto the Sixers to begin with.
While the full details haven’t been released, and no one has had a chance to ask the former MVP to elaborate on his comments yet, context from this offseason can show why Harden was so brazen with his malice for Morey.
Last offseason, Harden took a significant pay cut in order to free up money for Philadelphia to make additional acquisitions in free agency, notably used on two of his former teammates and fellow Morey favorites in Danuel House Jr. and P.J. Tucker. The impression was that the Sixers would reward the Beard for his fealty with a max contract extension this summer, one he would ultimately not receive.
Philadelphia 76ers star James Harden called his own team’s president Daryl Morey “a liar” in a surprising attack amid ongoing trade speculation surrounding the 2018 NBA Most Valuable Player https://t.co/JyeJHtMXUz
— CNN (@CNN) August 14, 2023
Then, displeased with the way the season ended and the Sixers’s lack of commitment, Harden made it clear that he intended to flea Philadelphia via free agency. When the market for his talents proved to be nonexistent, he and the Sixers came to a mutual agreement that he would pick up his player option so that Morey and the Philly brass could find a trade for him, specifically to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Shortly before Harden’s camp speech went viral, it became clear that the Clippers were unwilling to meet the Sixers price in a deal for Harden, and Philadelphia went on record that they would try to keep the Beard and contend with him and Joel Embiid rather than trade him for cents on the dollar.
While he certainly deserves his fair share of blame for the collapse of the current regime with the Sixers, there is some truth to what he said about Morey.
“Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organization that he is a part of”
James Harden calls out the 76ers president pic.twitter.com/1b5nOBaTPL
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) August 14, 2023
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| Title: James Harden was right to call Daryl Morey a liar
| Author: Andy Quach
| Date: August 15th, 2023