“Paying James Harden $60 Million at the age of 37? You must be out of your DAMN MIND!”: Stephen A Smith and Patrick Beverley debate Sixers’ star’s contract status

Stephen A Smith and Patrick Beverley debate James Harden and his eligibility for a supermax deal on First Take

The NBA Playoffs are on to their penultimate level. The Philadelphia 76ers, for the 2nd straight year, were eliminated in the 2nd round. This year, their elimination stings a little more, especially because of James Harden and his performance.

After the Sixers traded Ben Simmons, Andre Drummond, and Seth Curry for James Harden, many expected the Sixers to be title favorites. However, Harden averaged just 18.6 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 8.6 assists in the 12 playoff games this season. In the games where it mattered the most, Harden was nowhere to be found. In the last two games, the Beard had 0 points in the 4th quarter.

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James is now on his final year of the contract, where he can decide to opt-in to his $47.2 million, or become a free-agent. During the Sixers-Nets trade, there was an understanding that the Beard would opt-in, and that’s why the Sixers agreed to trade so many assets. However, the question that remains now is, what kind of a deal does Harden get this offseason?

Patrick Beverley and Stephen A Smith debate James Harden and his contract status

Pat Bev, who has been going off about Chris Paul on ESPN, has nothing but love for his former teammate James Harden. He truly believes that the 2018 MVP deserves a supermax contract.

.@patbev21 says he’d offer James Harden a ‘super-duper-duper max’ deal with the 76ers 👀 pic.twitter.com/ucbxRS5ods

— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) May 17, 2022

However, this view is not shared by all, including Stephen A Smith. The veteran ESPN analyst totally disagreed with Patrick Beverley. Smith talked about how a supermax would look like. If Harden gets a max extension, he would get $60 million at age 37, and that doesn’t make sense.

There’s NO WAY around it, James Harden does not deserve the SUPERMAX! pic.twitter.com/hKAyk3saNA

— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) May 17, 2022

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I have to agree with SAS here. Harden is a Top 75 player all-time, but he doesn’t deserve a supermax. He hasn’t been the same since the 2020-21 season, and in order to get a supermax, Morey needs to let Harden show that he can still be THAT GUY.