James Harden reveals why he called Daryl Morey a liar

The Los Angeles Clippers sacrificed a lot of depth to get James Harden. Likewise, Russell Westbrook sacrificed his starting role to accommodate him. Thus far, it hasn’t paid off, but it sure has proven that the team is trying to accomplish something bigger than just one individual.

Notably, Harden claims to know about sacrifice as well. He allegedly did so during his days with the Philadelphia 76ers, helping Daryl Morey out so he could walk his way around the salary cap and improve the team for years to come.

We already know how that ended, with Harden publically calling Morey ‘a liar’ and hinting at being promised a max contract in his next deal if he agreed to take a pay cut in free agency. Not only was that a violation of the league’s rules, but it also ended a years-long relationship between Harden and the one who trusted him the most.

With that in mind, the former Houston Rockets star had a tell-all interview with Sam Amick of The Athletic, and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver might be taking notes already.

James Harden of the Philadelphia 76ers

Harden Confirms Morey Promised Him A Max Contract

Talking about his frustration and how things ended up between the two, Harden stated that he had given up so much money already, which is why he wanted to leave for a place where he could compete at a high level while also getting paid. Then, he confirmed Morey had promised him a max contract, which is a clear violation of the league’s policies:

(Transcript via The Athletic)

“Harden: These last few years, I sacrificed so much — whether it’s role, whether it’s financial — that, at this point, it’s over with. I just want to be able to move forward and still have the opportunity to make some money and obviously win at the highest level.

Amick: So you mention the financial part, and I was hoping you could clarify one aspect of that situation. Were you actually told by the Sixers that you had that deal coming?

Harden: A max?

Amick:Yeah.

Harden: Yeah.

Amick: That was said by Daryl?

Harden: Yes. Yes.”

There you go. Whether the league will do anything about this or not remains to be seen, but it pretty much confirmed what most fans and analysts speculated since the beginning of the saga.

James Harden playing for the Clippers

Harden Felt Betrayed

The former MVP compared his relationship with Morey — which dated way back to his days with the Rockets — to a marriage. He didn’t care for the way his GM reportedly iced him out and felt disrespected by it:

“Instead of (Morey) having a conversation with me (about free agency) or saying, ‘All right James, we don’t want to offer you this, but we have this.’ Then we go back and forth, and that’s a dialogue,” Harden said. “But you just ice me out? Then it’s like, you don’t respect me as much as I thought you did. You don’t need people like that, you know what I mean? So it’s just bad karma. People were throwing dirt on my name, but the good guys always win.”

Morey has a long-withstanding reputation for being kind of shady when dealing with players and other teams, so it wouldn’t be much of a surprise to see him do that. Also, it’s not like this would be the first — or even last — time something like this happens.

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Sixers have a plan to replace James Harden, but it will take time

At the end of the day, we might never know what actually happened and how it happened, and chances are that Harden would’ve never gotten that max deal in free agency anyway. Still, he has every right to feel betrayed if Morey, indeed, made such a promise.