James Harden is coming to the Clippers.
The Clippers have agreed on a trade to acquire the All-Star guard from the Philadelphia 76ers, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski was first to report late Monday night.
Terms of the agreement were not yet official, but the Clippers are reportedly sending Nicolas Batum, Robert Covington, Marcus Morris and KJ Martin, multiple draft picks and a pick swap to Philadelphia. Along with Harden, 38-year-old forward P.J. Tucker and Serbian big man Filip Petrusev, 23, are headed to the Clippers as part of the deal.
Harden, 34, requested a trade in June when he opted into his $35.6 million player option for the 2023-24 season. During a promotional appearance in China in August, he called 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey “a liar” multiple times and said earlier this month upon rejoining the team that their relationship was irreparable.
Harden had yet to play for the 76ers this season, though he was on the bench with his teammates during Sunday’s game, wearing street clothes, after participating in the team’s pregame walkthrough and video session.
A former league MVP and 10-time All-Star, Harden averaged 21.0 points, 6.1 rebounds and an NBA-best 10.7 assists last season for Philadelphia. He has career averages of 24.7 ppg, 5.6 rpg and 7 apg. He is a career 36.3% shooter from 3-point range and an 86% shooter from the free-throw line. He has led the NBA in scoring three times and assists twice.
He starred at Lakewood Artesia High and now joins a Clippers team that is loaded with homegrown talent. Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Russell Westbrook also starred at Southern California high school programs before becoming college and NBA stars.
Harden, who has previously been teammates with Westbrook in both Oklahoma City and Houston, is no stranger to turmoil.
His wildly successful tenure in Houston – where he first teamed with Morey, then the general manager – included the scoring titles and 2018 NBA MVP award. But his relationship with the Rockets eventually soured and he forced his way to Brooklyn in 2021. He joined Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and formed a Big Three that was never very big. The trio was socked by injuries and other controversies (notably, Irving’s stance on the COVID-19 vaccine) and they played only 18 games together before, yup, Harden wanted out.
So it was off to Philly at the 2022 trade deadline, where he was reunited with Morey and seemed comfortable in his role as a playmaker while the offense ran through Joel Embiid. Harden even declined in June 2022 his $47.4 million option, saying he wanted to give the 76ers flexibility to improve their roster and compete for a championship. He signed a deal worth slightly over $68 million, paying him about $33 million last season with the aforementioned player option for this season.
The Sixers were able to sign Tucker to the full mid-level exception and Danuel House to the bi-annual exception because Harden declined his option.
Harden apparently believed he should have earned a long-term contract with the Sixers after last season. It never came, thus the trade demand. Harden could have declined the option and decided to try for free agency. The player known as The Beard instead picked up his option with the 76ers for this season, with the desire to force a trade, but talks with the Clippers had quieted after the front office indicated it was determined to keep Terance Mann, the versatile wing player who had been named a starter before injuring his left ankle. The 76ers had sought a player of equal value for Harden and targeted Mann.
Before the season began, Lawrence Frank spoke carefully about any potential trade because of tampering rules. He did say, however, that the Clippers always look for ways to get better, both individually and as a team and would be aggressive in trying to find ways to improve the team.
“But I like our group. I like our approach,” he said in September. “But we’ll always look for ways to get better.”
The NBA fined Harden $100,000 for the overseas comments he made about Morey.
In large part to not violate parts of his contract that could affect free agency under the Collective Bargaining Agreement and to show he’s ready to play should he get traded to the Clippers, Harden eventually showed up late to training camp and did practice with the 76ers at their New Jersey complex. He later said he lost trust in Morey.
“I wanted to be here and retire a Sixer, and the front office didn’t have that in their future plans,” Harden said earlier this month. “It’s literally out of my control. It’s something I didn’t want to happen to be in this position.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.