Break was breaking down all the biggest NBA storylines. Lord tuned in so the heat Check. The Heat Check was just a crack the best podcast covering all the trauma around the association.
Now, let's talk about the dumpster fire happening in Philadelphia. Find out what's really going on behind the scenes that cost a massive riff between the ones, very close relationship between James Harden and Sixers GM Daryl Moury, and of course what the fuck happens Next, we brought on your own Whitzman. He interviewed a dozen people close to both sides. He's here to break it all down. This is a can't miss interview without further ado. Listen in. Thank you
so much for coming on my pleasure. I've already Uh, what you guys don't hear behind the scenes is I accidentally said your own who's very prominent reporter in the business, love his work, that he didn't look good. So we're off to the race.
This weird.
We're headed for the kind of relationship that James Harden and Darryl Moorey. There you go, intense and fractured.
There you go.
How did we get to this place where Harden is now at war with his team, the third team in three years.
So that okay, so the third team in three years. That's almost a separate conversation, right In terms of this specific thing, his specific beef with Daryl Moury, we can trace it. I wrote a long story kind of trace this. This goes back years decade. But I think the real answer is just the root of who him and Maury are. That's what I wrote about. But that Daryl Moury at his root. I mean, all NBA fans know what he is,
the cold, calculating guy who wins above loyalty. And the way I phrased it is that emotions rarely play a role in his decisions, and James Harden is somebody who emotions are basically what or will mostly informed his decisions. And if you have those two, at some point we were going to hit this. At some point, We're gonna hit this point where there was going to be an issue, and there was going to be a problem. James Harden was not going to realize that maybe he wasn't the
max player. And that's that's not a new story, right, Like we can name Carmelo Russell Westbrook, Allen Iverson, like we can name in all sports like the Aging Superstar. That's that's an old story and that's one of the hardest things, and some teams will deal with that maybe and value the loyalty. Daryl Morry at some point was going to tell James Harden no, and James Harden at some point was going to be very angry that Daryl Moury said no and it was going to end up in this place.
Do you think that that, Yeah, because you talked about how important loyalty is to James Harden and if that's also something very important to me, And I don't necessarily think in business relationships I'm going to get loyalty, but this crossed the line from a business relationship ship to a friendship as well, where Daryl Morey had James Harden's
painting in his house. So if I value loyalty above everything else, the people around me I want to value loyalty too, and I kind of suss out whether that's something that's important to them. Do you think that James Harden thought he was going to be different as it related to Dyroll and or did he maybe think that this was coming down the pipe?
No, that's a great question. I think he I mean, we know the answer that he thought it was possibly coming down just based on his flirting with Houston, and I think that's that's I think it's a little more complicated than it's made out to be. But he was definitely interested and trying to work behind the scenes and see if you's still to be interested in him. Right, So you don't do that if you think that you're about to get a max contract and that's locked in.
You do that to try to exact some leverage or acts leverage over the guy you're in with. So I think they were both pretty on the up and up. And James Harden, I mean it's I think it's kind of classic, right. He values loyalty in other people. I wouldn't say he's the most loyal person himself, right, And so he saw plenty of There are plenty of examples in Houston of guys who were major pieces in different cores of teams. Was Louis Skola, Chuck Hayes, a different
you know, different people. Chris Paul was one who was banished because of James Harden, Right, different people who are part of the part of the group there and got dumped by the Rockets for different reasons. A lot of times the reasons were because James Harden was annoyed at them for some reason. And when I to go back, like when we talk about his emotions, it's also he values loyalty. He's also very sensitive, right, And that's something
that's important to know in all this. And the idea that if you I think I have a quote him this in the story from a former coach, the idea that if you cross James, he's just you're done with him. If and that cross could be you're done to him or in his yeah, just that cross can be the smallest of things, right, Like it was the idea of Chris Paul. We saw Chris Paul wanted to nudge the offense a little away, a little more towards a more
egalitarian system as opposed to James Harden being ball dominant. Nope, no good, right, Russell Westbrook. Let's go get me Russell Westbrook. That doesn't go well, okay, I want to get rid to west Russell Westbrook and I went out of here.
So it's not like he's being a he's a beacon of loyalty himself, which is sort of the ironic part, but I do think he probably saw something like this coming down the pike in terms of the idea that Darryl might try to break up with me, and therefore I'm gonna see if I break up with him first and get The problem for him was that the market just wasn't there, and I think the mistake was they didn't properly him and his team didn't properly adjust to the to those circumstances.
Yeah, Houston was kind of in the mix all last year, which was kind of bonkers to me. When you have a court right young core that you want to give the ball to. Jalen Green went on that podcast Pee interview and was like, Yeah, having hardened here would really stunt my development. And then they bring an ema Udoka. Now there's there's some not controvert but almost it's hard to decipher how much I may Udoka played in the role of James Harden not being able to come back
to Houston. I saw that you retweeted something from one of the other contemporaries where Emy is trying to set the record straight. What have you heard from people around that situation in terms of like how that dynamic went down?
So, I mean, what I heard for a while is that E may I don't want to I'm gonna say didn't like James Harden. I'm saying like I'm purpose and closes I don't. I don't think that means personally, right, I don't. I don't think that means an issue with him. I just think that means maybe as a player, well, while he was in Brooklyn, I should say, right that something about and I don't have the specifics of this
is why I forget how I phrased the story. Maybe it wasn't a fan of his style or whatever, but something about their time in Brooklyn made imay Udoka think that this was not going to be James Harden would not be a good fit for him for this team that he was inheriting in Houston. And then the story I went up today and Zach Low has a big story on ESPN about Jalen Green and you can you have the quote there, but may Be Dooka basically says, yeah, I thought Fred van Vliet would be a better fit
for us than James Harden. He pushes back on the idea that I don't like James Harden. He ever said that which fine, he's also publice not going to say that. I don't think he necessarily has a personal issue, but I just think it was very clear that when Imo Doka got there, Euston's appetite for a hardened reunion was really diminished.
Yeah, and what was interesting too from your article was that both sides have just this very disparate view of the relationship that was going to continue moving forward in the off season. You say James Harden doesn't feel wanted and the Sixers really want James Harden. Can you just expand on why those both you know, are so different in terms of their opinions.
Yeah, this is kind of the root of it. Like this, it's like this, So where is James Harden's problem James Harden's promise? He says that, no, of course, way back up, there's there's a there's an idea being that when James Harden have been okay, anything but a max right, and we for that, we have to go back to last year, he takes the pay cut to re sign with the Sixers. So then get PJ. Tucker and Daniel House really mostly PJ. Tucker. Everyone assumes there's a wink wink that Okay, Harden's gonna
take a pay cut. Clearly they have a wink wink that he's gonna sign a max next year. The league even investigates that doesn't find anything. The Sixers have denied that. Of course, I wrote this like if there was an agreement, it wouldn't be like a text message where Daryl Morey saying, Okay, you do the pay cut now, I promise you a max contract next year, right, Like it just that's not
how these things go. I don't know what happened. I'm gonna guess what happened is, yeah, we'll take care of you, right. And what everyone takes that like, that's a very vague sentence phrasing, and everyone takes that whatever to mean whatever they think it's gonna mean. James Harden plays this year most of the year, he probably thinks he's in good shape, he's playing really well. Houston's there, So if Houston's there also as interested as a team of interest or team
who's interested in him, the market's gonna be better. He's thinking, Okay, I'll be good with contract. He has another poor playoff or poor game six or seven. I should say he had a couple of good games in there. Houston is no longer on the market. If there's anybody who would know that Houston is off the market, it would be dal Maurray, who's obviously really plugged into what's going on there, even though he's not there anymore. But you know, teams
can find these things out. And Philly now is saying that the reason we're not negotiating with James Harden earlier, letting him know that he's wanted is because, hey, remember last year we were adopted a couple of draft picks for negotiating with PJ. Tucker and Daniel House early and those guys. And therefore this year we're going to be real sticklers for the NBA's rules, right, for the NBA's
tampering rules and free agency timeline. They've insisted on that in private also, And I'm saying that because could because they insist on him private too. I'm dubious on that, right. I find that that's hard to believe. I think if there was another team that was interested in Hard and they knew of they would have adjusted accordingly. And I think that's where sort of them breakdown really comes from, is that Harden once to be told at that in
those moments you like me. I know I will actually take less than the max, but just show me that you want me. Philly is saying, now you know what we were promising, We wanted you. We were going to be there. The moment free agency open, you would have been at your doorstep. We have to wait, we have
to wait. And this is where the breakdown is that it's kind of like he said, he said, and I don't know the answers that are probably both right right, I'm both right and wrong, and how he got here, and I just I don't know if they can come back from this.
And James Harden's probably like, well, I've seen the way Daryl Morey's rock for the last ten years for sure, and if you are changing your the way that you move now, it is sending me into red alert. Push the button. I have now no other options but to be strong armed by the Philly. So now I'm just gonna sign. I'm just going to pick up my player option because if it's a jump mollfuck you, I actually.
Think I actually use that. That's a great point. I think that the idea that he would know and if he knows, how do't what operates and if like you're saying aging his methods, that's a red flan they know, right, and this isn't I mean, the whole NBA knows how dwal Morey operates. He's been around for twenty years as a reputation as being a I'll say cold, you want to say really uh you know yeah, which again that's
like these sometimes are negative words. That's you can argue it's also his job, right, So I'm not I'm not
saying that and that he's doing anything wrong. And this is the way the hardened thing becomes so complicated because we can all agree James Harden should not be getting a max right, And I don't know, Like, if you're Philly, Dallas is a great example, right, Kyrie has no other market none, there's no other market that they try pretending he's meeting with Phoenix, and they do all these things that there's no one else there and Dallas they could
have squeezed them. Instead they come with whatever three years, one hundred. I forget the exact numbers were right, And I don't know that if they held strong, like was there anyone else coming close to that? Probably not. They decided that to them it was more important to have Kyrie in and signed and have him be happy. Right, And I'm not saying that's move right. That could have
been wrong. We will see darl Morey's doing the opposite way, right, going with a different it was going with different paths. So again I guess I should point out they insist that they were not going to go a different path, that at some point they would have offered Hard in a contract. I don't know, if I have no numbers, I don't know, but at some point they would have offered a heart in the contract that would have been, you know, valuable, and he would have been happy with.
And this way you can go drive yourself in circles. Also because like Daryl Morey knows as well as anyone how sensitive James hard is, so he's probably also thinking, I assume, wait, if he only wants a Max, is he gonna be happy with anything we offer? Like I can come day one and offer him I don't know making I'm making this up three for one twenty and he's gonna say, fuck you, no, I don't want that. I want to Max. I'm James Harden And it creates
a whole issue there. So this is why. I go back to the original thing we were talking about that. I just think this relationship at some point was destined to wind up in this area, in this in this area where they're both well, someone has a problem with the other.
Yeah, and you mentioned Kyrie, and I think that's really fascinating because Daryl Moury knows that Kyrie is even more He knows that Harden is even more disruptive when he's unhappy than Kyrie is. And Kyrie can be a big thorn in your side as well, which makes sense why Dallas wants to keep him happy, because they really ultimately want to keep Luca happy. I'm curious if anyone brought up the dynamic between hardened and embid and whether that was something that was in the Sixer's mind. They put
all this effort into this process. You talked about that in your book Tanking to the Top. Just how long it's taken for them to become a contender and now it feels like the lynchpin of this process is now James Harden. So how much do you think that played into it as well?
Yeah, I mean that's a big part. Daryl Moury, like the reason James Harden was that the root of that relationship was the idea that Darna Morwy thought James Harden was a top five, top three whatever player. He was an all time great who could win them, carry them to a title, and therefore building a team that accentuates his skills and around him, and also doing certain things on the fringes, whether it's practice times or certain teammates
or coaches, whatever, keeping him happy. That was. He wasn't doing that because he loved James Harden as a person. I mean he was. That was part of it, but it's because, no, my job is to win, and the best way to win is James Harden affect him and happy. Right, The same thing is gonna be the case now with Joel Embiid. Like that, that that relationship is now going
to be. That's gonna be the new Foundational relationship. And Daryl Morey knows that right, and he knows I think he said this before in the record, But you know, managing up, whether it's a to his ownership or towards the superstar, that's an essential part of being a GM. So managing the managing jew Embiid and making sure he's satisfied and feeling comfortable and happy in his current situation.
Like I think Daryn Morey would probably say that's at the top of his priority list, like that is his job and because it goes in his view, and he's probably right, that goes hand in hand with that's the same thing as trying to win a title. Like those are the same. Those two things are the same. That's the same thing. That's the same goal. So to bringing full circle, like to bring answer your question, Yeah, he's
he's having conversations with him. I don't know what those are. Indeed, somebody who likes to uh, he likes the Monday morning quarterback basketball decisions. We saw Jimmy Butler right when Jimmy He's talked a lot about how he always wanted Jimmy Butler and he didn't want him to leave, and he always wished to bring him back. That was he never
made that clear. I mean, I know that he never made that clear to anybody at the time, like they if if he had made clear that he wanted Jimmy Butler to still be there, I don't know if he he probably would have still been there or it would have been a bigger discussion. He never made that clear. Only after the fact did he did he say that. You know, I think Jimmy Butler should have stayed. And he's done this with other decisions too, you know, kind
of poke afterward. So then I think the Sixers perspective on this would be like, Okay, if he's gonna Monday morning quarterback us, we might as well do what we think is best for our basketball team, because it's if it doesn't work out, it's not like he's gonna say, oh, you know what. I was on board with that, And I was also so in terms of like and b knows any Harden or he knows any other star. I guess at this point, what's he gonna do. He's not going to ask out for a trade now at the
end of this year. You know that season in basketball is a long long time, but right now this that it is managing it.
So I don't get the Nick Nurse hiring, uh, especially considering in your article you talked about how James Harden was consulted on the head coach decision in yeah, in Houston or in Philly.
And those were in Houston. Here, I don't know if I don't know if he was consulted here, I don't. I don't know either way.
So Doc Rivers fired because mostly he was trying to help hold James Harden accountable. Right, James Harden's traveling to Vegas, He's you know, in the playoffs, he's back in Houston whenever it's an off day. And what the reporting was not yours, but other reporting was that, you know, that was a key crux of Doc Rivers being let go. Is it he was trying to put the screws on Harden.
Nick Nurse comes in. He's even more of a accountability guy than even Doc Rivers is way less of a player's coach we've now seen in terms of how he moved when he was in Toronto. Does that like, does that fit make sense for a James Harden led team? In your opinion, it's.
Uh no, it's a little it's it's a little interesting. I'm a little not surprising, confusing, here's a better way to say it. I found I have found it really interesting. So they started camp. I'm not there, but you're reading the quotes coming out and Tobias Harris and Daniel House both specifically forget even when the coach talks about their system. That's different, right, because whatever they say, you coach speak.
But Tobias Harris and Daniel House have both specifically talked about how it's going to be very different this year with UH coach Nurse who's emphasizing ball movement and player movement and gutting guys on the move, not just standing around. And you know people can look up those quotes. I think Daniel House even mentioned not like what Doc did, I think, which I found funny. Those are not basketball philosophies that you think of as as meshing with James
Harden's style and game. So I'm with you. I find interesting. It makes me almost you know, as a basketball fan, I'm fast. I kind of want to see James Harden in the court and to see like what this looks like and maybe there could be an interesting and cool UH middle ground found that can lift it all up. So that part is interesting, I think. But but I think the answer your question is, I don't think Harden is the one the six Ers are going to find
the head coach. I don't think Harden was the priority. Right. It's embiid and Nick Nurse is somebody who they think can unlock embed in new ways and to be fair, doc Rivers like Embiid got much better under doc Rivers. And again I don't know who to credit for this. I never know. Everyone ends up taking credit for it, all right, But with doc Rivers there and Bead evolved. We saw the stuff with the on the elbow last
year where he became this unstoppable force. You have to give Rivers a little credit for that at the least. But I think they think that Nurse can unlock the offense and an EMBIID centric offense ways that they haven't seen and around the playoff time. Also, Nick Nurse has a relationship previous relationship with Daral Moray going back to Houston. He was the g lee coach for Morrity in Houston.
So I think those would be the Those are the relationships and the people I look towards in terms of trying to understand why they hired Nick Nurse, not trying to build everything around James Harden. But I'm with you, I'm fascinated to see what this would look like.
Yeah, me too. How Like those comments that James made in China were really really interesting in terms of the location. Yeah, in terms of the timing. Obviously, the Hong Kong free Hong Kong stuff that Darryl Moury put out got him a ton of heat from the league. It got the league penalized in a big way. Do you think that was premeditated?
I know people think that this is gonna sell me. I don't know. James Harden is Uh, that's a lot of dots to connect, right, I don't know if that if it is, if if it were that almost respected more, that's funny. That sounds like that would just be going full blast. I think it was more a coincid well two parts. I think it was a coincidence that of the timing right, So that was I believe, like a month.
I don't remember. Was it a Monday or Tuesday. I think it was a Monday, and like the previous Thursday or Friday, ESPN had reported that the Sixers were ending Trey conversations and expected hard in the camp. So I
think that's it was a reaction to that. I don't I think the China, If I'm guessing, I think James hard to make those comments in China have less to do with him trying to poke it down more though that'd be funny versus this clearly a comfort he feels there and a love that he feels from the public there that he doesn't necessarily feel in situations here right and there. He thought he was talking to his part isans, his people in that situation, and I feel like that's
why he that's where that came from. I don't think the time was premeditated at least, you know, I don't think his camp. If it was premeditated with his camp, maybe you know, harden to say he was gonna do something, but I don't think his camp and like laid that out as a smart move, yeah, but I think it was just as a comfort he feels there in China.
So you mentioned the comfort that he's not feeling here sort of stateside. So he's kind of always to me, from what I've heard from around the league, known to be someone who, like you said, very sensitive, has a chip on his shoulder, didn't play for a blue chip school like Kentucky or Duke, ended up going to ASU, was the number three draft pick, but still was a
six man on an OKC team. Like, from what you understand, where is this sensitivity, this chip on the shoulder, This crossed me once and I'll cut you off forever, Like, what is it inside of him externally around him that has created that? If you know, if anyone has mentioned other circumstances that they could point to.
It's a great question. I don't have a good answer. I wish I did. I profiled him last year and I did like a forty feth minute interview with him, which you don't you know, I don't pretend you get to know people well on those, but it gives you some insight and the biggest thing, my biggest takeaway from
that does a fully answered question. What's related is like he was so his go to move is I don't care what people think and or I don't pay attention to what people say, like when they say X, Y Z and then quote exactly what they say.
Right.
It was like it was like he did that repeatedly, and I think I even said that to him at some point I wish I hadn't remembered. I said, nicely, you know, just you know you say this, but clearly you do care, and he got to it. The answer we ended up getting to that I found interesting is there's a legacy play with him for sure that he's aware of, right, and that goes back to the title chasing,
I should say title chasing. He knows he needs a title, right, he wants to be remembered as an all time great. If I'm guessing, I don't know. I don't know in terms of like you know, psychology or child there's deeper, more interesting answers that I wouldn't be able to touch on or wouldn't have insight into. I do think there's a tension between him correctly realizing that he's somebody who
changed the game of basketball, right. He said this to me, like I changed a game of basketball, and he's completely right about that. All time great, he changed the game and he deserves a ton of credit for that, and not change the game annoying way, like he's an all time great offensive player. But there are these caveats to his career, you know, if you look at his legas his resume, where you know a lot of playoff failures, no championship, and it's gonna be like he's almost at
the point. You know, with stars, they hit a point where you're if you're so good in one category, then we accentuate your negatives, where like if he wasn't quite that good, we would kind of ignore the negatives, if that makes sense. So he's where he's so good that we have to then emphasize the the the problems or the deficiencies, and that almost overshadows that conversation, overshadows the greatness. And I think that's something that he's sensitive to, and
I get that. I don't think he's helping himself in terms of how how he's going about trying to address that.
Yeah, And I don't think he's really helping himself in terms of getting him out either. It feels like if he wasn't being so loud about things, then maybe it would be easier for other teams to want to at least explore trading for him. But he's kind of a headache and a declining asset, and it seems like the Clippers are the only ones with interest, and Darryl Moury, like he did with Ben Simmons, is gonna want a haul.
They're gonna want at least a young player that they can build around or some pieces to turn into another marquee player. But what you're reporting is is that James Harden is You would not be somebody said to you close to you or a source close to Harden excuse me, wouldn't be surprised if he returns and is destructive? What is did they like expand on what destructive?
Could well see? Anyway? Right now? He was a good citizen, Yes, we've seen it. The lazy passes like, well, we've seen it. I don't know if he'll do well, is it, Ben Simmons? If you have a phone in his pocket? I'm trying to remember it was that we able to figure out if it was a phone or if it wasn't a phone. I do want to go back in a couple of things, a few things what you mentioned dal Moury. This I think is the two parts when you the things you said right, you mentioned dal Moray wants a haul and
it is gonna hold out. It's more than that. It's that he needs He's backed into a corner, right like if he screws this up, if the Harden thing gets screwed up, and let's say he just gave it and traded hard for out of Norman Powell and some the Clippers junk right and like they lose in the first round, they get swept by the Celtics or losing five h daral Moray his jobs on the line and Joel and Beide might ask out and you and then you're you're in charge of that. So it's not even like Ben Simmons.
You could argue that was more of a a ego player. Right now, I'm not gonna I'm gonna hold out and I show you guys, I can do this, like he has no choice here. He cannot mess this up. He cannot take fifty cents on the dollar. Otherwise the bead's probably gonna be gone, right, And that's a huge issue. And that's why I agree with you that Harden's not handling this properly right, and I think his camp thinks there's teams who are interested in him. I have done
this publicly. It doesn't seem like that. I haven't heard of anyone. And you know we saw the Damian Lillard like guys asking out. The way to do it is you can ask out. You gotta let the GM the team create a market. Like you can tell tell your team quietly who your preference is. But if you do that, you just make it harder for them to trade you.
The best example, everyone always talks about Anthony Davis going to the Lakers, but if you remember like we all knew he wanted to go to the Lakers, he didn't say that publicly, like there was some oh wait, maybe the Celtics or maybe the Knicks, Like there was enough out there that New Orleans could, you know, work the market, work the phones a little bit, or create some sort of leverage and get a deal that worked for them and in the end you get a win win, like
James Harden is preventing, has taken that opportunity away from the Sixers, and that's a problem.
Well, what's interesting about what you said is, remember Rich Paul did say out in the open, you know, Anthony Davis is only going to re sign with LA. But the thing that's different about the Clippers versus the Lakers. In the circumstances, Kawhi and PG don't have nearly the amount of power that Lebron James has within that organization, or at least that Lebron James had back then in terms of I want this guy. And even if Paul George and Kawhi did have that power, they're not asking
for James Harden. James Harden's not at the caliber player as Anthony Davis was, or at least has the upside of Anthony Davis, Well, you could.
Say, you could say no on that if you're the Clippers. Now, I think they actually are interested in him. I just think they know that, like, what's our rush? You know, there's no one else here? Why are we going to give everything up? What's the point here? So we can just wait it out?
And we could probably just wait until he's a free agent. If he plays nice, you know, we can get him at twenty cents on the dollar like we did Russell Westbrook, which which is very fascinating that Harden and Russell Westbrook could potentially be teammates.
That would be hilarious. And I'm sure they'll say that, you know, no, we were never we never had issues. We were always friends, and the media over blew it blah blah blah blah blah.
Both dudes, though, are very stubborn, right Daryl Morey.
And Harden, uh for sure for sure, which is probably what makes them great at what they You know, they're both great in their respective fields and have you know, become one percenters in their areas.
Who do you think breaks first?
I wouldn't say break. I think the sixers. I think Harden has less leverage than the Sixers. Well, you know, I don't know. I go in circles on this because it's like I say that, but Harden could nup the whole season. Like everyone is familiar now with the CBA thing that's been getting a lot of press that you have to show up if you go thirty days without
showing up, whatever the proper language is. But like you can show up, but there's nothing against hamstring injury or throwing you know, lazy behind the back passes or not playing defense. Like it's team can't dock you pay for that, they can bench you. But this goes back to what I'm saying that, like, you know, if the Sixers season goes in the tank, that's a big issue for them. So do I break for I genuinely I have I do not know. This is not a good answer, Like
I don't know. I don't see how this ends. I don't know how this ends. I have trouble seeing it. To me, the only way to me the answer is that the season starts and stuff happens around the league, and maybe another team decides, hey, you know what, we will take a shot on him, and that changes the market. That's kind of My answer on this that like I don't know. Let's say Miami gets up to a bad start. I'm making up a team, right, or Jimmy Butler gets
hurt or whatever. Okay, so maybe we'll take a shot on James Harden and that would be a funny marriage James Harden with pat Riley. He culture in South Beach. But I don't know. Maybe, Like that to me is the answer that just once the season starts and stuff happens, and some teams have disappointing outcomes or events or results, that then creates a bit of a market and that allows this thing to kind of get kick started and rolling.
Do you think there's any possibility of reconciliation.
I guess the good. So that's a that's a James Harden question, right, Like I Dannel Maury, I don't think he can Like, yeah, he has like being called a liar. If James Harden's back, he is not personal to him, like he's fine with that. That's I guess the upside of his approach to the job, right, It's not like all this guy is blasting me, let me, let me.
I'm gonna I'm done with him, Like I'm done. So that's a James Harden question, And for him it's more about, like, well, he come to realize that the market for him is probably not what it once was, and honestly, the best like he wants to get paid again, the best answers for him he's got. Now he's on an expiring deal, which he probably shouldn't have picked up if you want it out. But now he's on this expiring deal. Uh,
his best move is to just play really well. And I mean, listen, I'm not gonna tell anyone to be unhappy at work. But if he's, if he's prioritizing getting paid again, his best move is to play really well and hit the open market next year as a free agent. So I do think there's a path there, and I guess the good the good news about all the gray areas about who's offended who and who was offering who a contract and a what time that I mentioned earlier is that it leaves a bit of wiggle room for you.
Oh you know what, this is actually misunderstanding. We won you the whole time, and you just did realize, And let's actually get our room and talk about it, and maybe they can all convince themselves that, like, no, we're cool. So I do think it's a possibility. I wouldn't say hi, but I do think it's a possibility.
Man. So you wrote a book tanking to the top the Philadelphia seventy six Ers in the most audacious process in the history of professional sports, which basically is agreed, just tanking, nine win seasons, just stuff that was I mean, only the Portland Trailblazers trying to get Scoot Henderson and
Shape and Sharper probably on the level of that. So if Philadelphia does not actually ever get a championship as a result of how badly they were on purpose, is this the in your opinion, like, just to wrap it up, the greatest NBA failure in or at least the biggest failure in their franchise is history and the Sixers.
Yeah, Like, so failures, there's there's a they're up there. It's a different kind of list, right, So you can think of there's like the Dwight Steve Nash Lakers, which was a fun one, the nets twice, right, the Kevin Garnett Dedren Williams nets, and then I think the Kyrie Kevin Durant one that I take the cake in terms of just biggest what if this though, I do think it's one of a kind. And I'm not a Philly guy. I live in New York, Like it's not like people,
I'm not a Sixers fan. I just I just attracted this story because it's just so ridiculous, Like it's it's not just that they haven't made it past the second round, like there was the process started with trading Drew Holliday after a second round, after losing the second round and ten love whatever year is. Now eleven years later, they still have in the advanced past the second around, Like that's wild, right, And it's not like they got you
all them beads so they have the MVPs. It's not like they haven't had the ability to be there, just
they didn't derailed by all sorts of nonsense. And it's all the nonsensible scandals that make this a unique story, right, the Frank Klangel Burnergade and two number one picks who forget how to shoot, Like that's on that's unheard of, right, Fulton Simmons, uh Is you can go down the list, is Sam Pinky being ousted and just it's it's just down Boyd and coming back like San Pinky's mentor coming back and just it's just the I don't know, it's like it's straight off a TV show, right, It's like
it's too it's too ridiculous to be true. So that's what I think separates it. It's not just the on core failures, it's that what have it's the uh, the scandals are issues that have led to those on core failures. Is what makes this different.
Well, I'm gonna be fascinated to see how this ends. Awesome stuff. Probably the most comprehensive breakdown into Daryl Morey and Harden's relationship and why it was, you know, really beneficial for very long time, but always doomed to fail. Definitely check that out at foxsports dot com. Do you have anything else you're own that you.
Want to plug? Yeah? Check me on Twitter at your own wife X. Excuse me X all right right? Uh the linkless X these days.
Y A R O N W E I T Z M A N. Thank you so much for joining us.
Let's do it again sometime my pleasure. Thank you for having me.
That's all the time that we have for this episode of the Heat Check. Thanks a million to your own for coming on last minute. That interview is dope. Come back next Monday for an all new episode and check out the feed for past interviews and many episodes that drop unexpectedly as well. Follow the heat check as we head into the new NBA season, Do not forget to download, subscribe, and tell all your friends, every single one of them.
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