James Harden has been wanting out of the Philadelphia 76ers for months. And last night, his wish was finally granted. After several failed attempts, the Los Angeles Clippers managed to convince the Sixers to trade the Beard. It is a huge move at the start of the season that sees a disgruntled Harden joining the team of his choice.
Advertisement
Following the trade announcement, several fans, players, and analysts took to social media to share their thoughts. Former NBA star Gilbert Arenas was one of them. Taking to X (Formerly Twitter), Agent Zero shared a video of Harden and PJ Tucker, who is also part of the trade with the Clippers, laughing on the bench.
Arenas wrote in the caption, “They knew and couldn’t do sh*t!“, inserting a bunch of laughing emojis to indicate his reaction. Both Harden and Tucker could be seen laughing around, before the start of their LA stints. Based on the caption, it would seem as though the former Wizards star believes that the Clippers got the better end of the deal. The implication from Arenas was clearly that Harden and PJ Tucker were laughing about their trade deal and how they had edged out the Sixers’ front office eventually.
Incidentally, James Harden was not on the bench during the Sixers’ first few games. The organization chose to deny him access and only allowed him entry the last game. Perhaps, they wanted to give the 2018 MVP one last glimpse of the Wells Fargo Center before sending him off to the City of Angels.
The Clippers gave up quite a haul to bring James Harden and PJ Tucker to Los Angeles
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Los Angeles Clippers have offered the Philadelphia 76ers quite a package. In exchange for James Harden, PJ Tucker, and Filip Petrusev, the Clips are trading Marcus Morris, Nic Batum, Robert Covington, Kenyon Martin Jr., and multiple draft picks and picks swaps.
An impressive return for the Sixers, who had lost Harden’s faith before the offseason. At the start of the 2022-2023 season, the Beard took a significant pay cut in order to accommodate PJ Tucker and Danuel House Jr. on the team. A probable reason for this was that Sixers’ President Daryl Morey supposedly promised him more money the following season. However, as we all know, the Sixers didn’t live up to that promise following the team’s postseason flameout.
What followed was months of a disgruntled Harden dragging the Morey and the organization through the mud. Fortunately, Philly can rest easy, now that Harden has found his way back to his hometown of LA.
On the other hand, the Clippers will be excited to have the 10-time All-Star on their roster. With the likes of Russell Westbrook, Kawhi Leonard, and Paul George already present, they have assembled a super team on paper. As such, anything short of an NBA Championship would be considered a failure for the team this season.
