Philadelphia 76ers guard James Harden didn’t present up for follow Wednesday, with coach Nick Nurse saying he had no rationalization as to why.
Harden, who has sought a commerce since choosing up his $35.6 million participant possibility for the 2023-24 season, had been anticipated to take part in Wednesday’s follow. Final week, Harden mentioned he might make his preseason debut at house on Friday — the group’s ultimate preseason recreation — towards the Atlanta Hawks.
“If he is right here, we go; if he isn’t right here, we go,” Nurse advised reporters Wednesday. “… I am nonetheless occurring what he mentioned the final time I talked him, that he was going to ramp up and prepare to play Friday. We’ll see the way it goes.”
Harden, after attending a gathering with the group in New York on Sunday, has been in Houston for the previous few days, sources advised ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne. The franchise plans to permit Harden the possibility to clarify his absence earlier than deciding tips on how to deal with any punishment, sources advised Shelburne.
Harden has been pissed off for months that his want to be traded to the LA Clippers has but to be granted. The 2 groups have talked in latest days, sources advised ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Wednesday, however {that a} sizable hole stays between them on a possible Harden deal.
In his solely media look since arriving at coaching camp earlier this month, Harden mentioned Friday that he might make his preseason debut this Friday in Philadelphia.
“I am going to ramp it up and attempt to play the final one simply to get myself in recreation conditions and get used to the physicality of defenders bumping you and whatnot,” Harden mentioned then. “The velocity, the tempo, all that good things. So I feel we have got an excellent plan in place.”
He attended follow Sunday, however then was not at Monday’s shootaround or at Monday night time’s recreation on the Brooklyn Nets. The 76ers had been off Tuesday, organising Wednesday as the subsequent time he might probably be on the court docket together with his teammates.
Harden, who has been tied on the hip with 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey because the latter introduced him to the Houston Rockets in a commerce with the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder previous to the 2012-13 season, referred to as Morey a “liar” throughout a shoe occasion in China in August.
Harden mentioned Friday that there was no probability of that relationship being repaired, and he repeatedly referred to Morey as “the entrance workplace” with out saying his identify.
“No,” Harden mentioned flatly, when requested instantly if he thought issues might get patched up with Morey. “This isn’t even about this case — that is in life. Whenever you lose belief in somebody, it is like a wedding … you lose belief in somebody, you recognize what I imply? It is fairly easy.”
Added Harden later: “Me and the entrance workplace had a really, superb relationship for a decade. There was fixed communication, you recognize what I imply? There was no communication as soon as we misplaced [to Boston in the playoffs].”
Each Harden and Joel Embiid have missed the primary three preseason video games, with Philadelphia’s hope being that the 2 of them would play Friday towards Atlanta.