The 76ers promised a maximum salary? Harden responded positively, Morey cheated, and joined the Clippers for another reason
Harden left the 76ers to join the Clippers in the offseason, and Harden applied for a trade from the team's management twice, which caused him to suffer a lot of external doubts.
Harden said: Before the start of the 2023 playoffs, 76ers management Morey promised me that he would give him a contract with a maximum salary, but it didn't work out, I lost too much money, loyalty and respect, so I didn't have anything to say with Morey, he cheated on me, I have communicated with him in the past ten offseasons, but this kind of communication is not in this offseason, and I don't know why this happened at the time, but now I think clearly, everything is business in the end.
Regarding the reason for joining the Clippers, Harden said: Actually, I talked to Udoka about the idea of joining the Rockets in the offseason, but I don't want to go back to the scoring champion mode, and relatively speaking, the Clippers are better, I can not only play at a high level, but also win, and be able to be with my family, and in this team, I have the opportunity to chase my higher goals, do what I want to accomplish in basketball, in the future, I just want to get the salary I deserve and have the opportunity to win at the highest level, in the past few seasons, I have really sacrificed too much, financially, or otherwise, and now it's all overI just hope I can move on with the team.
From Harden's words, it's clear what happened to him throughout the offseason, being betrayed, losing his salary, losing friends, losing trust. He communicated with Morey every offseason for 10 years, which shows that the relationship between the two is very close, but in the end he betrayed Harden, gave Harden hope, and finally made Harden desperate, and had no choice but to apply for a trade twice to leave the Clippers, not wanting to have anything to do with this person. Harden took the initiative to reduce his salary by 14 million for the 76ers, and now that I think about it, Harden was still naïve at the beginning, he thought that the team would be strengthened, but the 76ers only thought about the same as the Rockets of the year - tax avoidance. This made Harden very disappointed with the team, and leaving may be the best outcome.
Joining the Clippers, Harden's purpose is very clear, he was born in Los Angeles, his family and friends are here, and he can also play for his hometown team, and more importantly, Clippers owner Ballmer is a bold boss, as long as you play well, a big contract is not a problem at all, plus the Clippers already have superstars like George, Xiaoka, and Wei Shao, Harden's joining is like a tiger, and he can impact the championship with the Clippers, dreams, salary, family, and friends are available in the Clippers, and it is reasonable that Harden has always wanted to join the Clippers.
It's just that the Clippers' record is not good now, and as a fan, I hope that Harden will forget the unpleasantness, find his past form as soon as possible, and make the Clippers the real favorites to win the championship.