James Harden already declared his intention to remain with the Sixers and opt in to his player option next season. The former league MVP made this sweeping statement right after Philadelphia was eliminated by the Miami Heat on Thursday night.

Right now, however, the talk of the town is if the Sixers are going to give Harden a max extension. He's going to be earning $46.9 million next season once he opts in to his deal, but at the moment, some folks aren't sure if Harden's earned the right to a max extension beyond that.

Hall of Fame point guard Isiah Thomas claims that he's not in the best position to determine whether or not Harden will get the big-money extension. What he can say, however, is that if the Sixers superstar does not, then this will definitely have a significant impact on Harden in more ways than one:

“There are max players, and then there are max players who have different status,” Thomas explained (h/t NBA TV on Twitter). “LeBron James, Kevin Durant — they're max players and they got A+ status. And then there are other max players in the league who don't have A+ status, but they still have max status. Now, if you don't have max status, and you're James Harden, you've been at that level, then you gonna get treated a little different by the rest of the league, the officials, the fans, and your teammates.”

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Thomas brings up some excellent points here. He's not saying that Harden won't get the max. However, he's adamant that if he doesn't, everything is going to change for James Harden — and not necessarily for the better.