By Alfredo Echenique
Oct 31, 2023, 12:45 PM EDT
After months of uncertainty and controversy, it seems that James Harden’s future in the NBA already has a name and surname and it will be the Los Angeles Clippers. Well, according to what they say, the American star has already finalized his departure from the Philadelphia 76ers.
The information was revealed by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. The exchange for “Barba” will be for four players and several picks from the upcoming drafts. Marcus Morris, Nicolas Batum, Robert Covington, Kenyon Martin Jr. are the players that the Pennsylvania team will receive for the 34-year-old point guard.
Harden joined the 76ers in the middle of the 2021/2022 season from the Brooklyn Nets. In this season and a half that he was wearing the franchise uniform, he played 79 games, leaving an average per game of 21 points, 6 rebounds and 10 assists.
With this transfer, the Clippers join a mega team that is already emerging as a candidate in the Western Conference of the NBA. Harden will now share the floor with Paul George, Kawhi Leonard and his former Oklahoma City Thunder teammate, Russell Westbrook.
Why did Harden ask to leave the 76ers?
Harden arrived in Philadelphia in the middle of the 2021/2022 season from the Nets in an exchange for Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond and two first rounds of the draft to the Nets in June of this year Harden accepted his player option with the 76ers for $35.6 million dollars.
The point guard had given up a better offer last year to enrich the franchise’s possibilities in the market and be able to reinforce the squad, however this verbal agreement never came, which brought anger to Harden.
That is why in August the player called the 76ers president of operations, Daryl Morey, a “liar.” Harden began to shout that he would not play with the Philadelphia franchise again. Even threatening to withdraw him if an agreement is not reached for his departure.
Faced with this ultimatum from Harden, the Sixers management had no choice but to negotiate a trade for the player. Reaching this agreement with the Clippers. One of the franchises in which “Barba” always wanted to play.
Keep reading:
· James Harden: “I wanted to retire as a sixer, but the idea of the board was not that”
· James Harden will not play with the Sixers: transfer or retirement
· Joel Embiid approaches the Knicks in a possible trade for four players