Roughly a month away from training camp, the Philadelphia 76ers still have to figure out what to do with James Harden. The star veteran has dumped gallons upon gallons of gasoline on any semblance of a bridge between himself and the Sixers, looking to burn it all after not getting the trade he expected to get. Team owner Josh Harris recently voiced his stance on the ordeal.

As the Sixers' Harden situation remains in limbo, Harris joined the Washington Commanders, the NFL squad that he recently purchased, for a home preseason matchup with the Baltimore Ravens. His appearance there will mostly be remembered for his interview on the ESPN broadcast where he mistakenly gave Joe Buck a handshake. Prior to that, he spoke about the Harden dilemma and how he hopes to move forward with it.

“Listen, we’re hard at work,” Harris said before the game, according to The Athletic. “I respect James. I want to, obviously, accommodate what he wants. At the same time, I have to think about a championship contending team, what we can get back. I’d love to convince him to stay. I understand that that’s not what he wants to do right now. I’m going to keep working to resolve it in a way that everyone can live with and is positive for everyone, whatever that resolution is…I respect him as a basketball player, and as a person. It’s back to, these are, you’re dealing with people, right? And you’ve got to be there. We’ll see where it comes out.”

Harden and Harris were previously seen together at Michael Rubin's famous white party earlier this summer, which suggests, at the very least, that they had a solid relationship before Harden's trade demand got really heated. However, Harris' message is pretty much the exact same thing that Philadelphia's president of basketball operations Daryl Morey said when he broke his silence on the Harden situation in July: the Sixers will only trade Harden if the deal actually helps them. They don’t view him as a sunk cost that must be moved right away, though his staunch desire to leave Philly has really started to make him one.

The Sixers clearly want to keep winning with Joel Embiid leading the way but with Harden only having a desire to be traded to the Los Angeles Clippers and turning 34 years old this week, the trade market for him is weak. With the 2023-24 season drawing near, no resolution is in sight.