The relationship between James Harden and Daryl Morey has fractured beyond repair, at least when it comes to basketball. Harden called his longtime general manager and biggest champion a “liar” on multiple occasions over the summer, insisting he'd never play for a team Morey was involved with ever again. The former league MVP finally got his wish on Monday night, Morey and the Philadelphia 76ers sending him to the LA Clippers in exchange for a package headlined most by future first-round picks and salary flexibility.
Needless to say, that's not the end Morey envisioned when he first brought Harden to Philly at the 2022 trade deadline. After their mutually beneficial partnership with the Houston Rockets fizzled without a championship, both Morey and Harden surely believed re-teaming with the Sixers could lead to them hoisting the Larry O'Brien Trophy alongside Joel Embiid.
As the dust clears on Harden's failed tenure in the City of Brotherly Love, though, you won't hear Morey expressing anything but appreciation for the player he once called a better scorer than Michael Jordan.
“James changed my life,” Morey told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne after Harden was dealt to the Clippers. “He's one of the all-time greats. As time goes on, people will think about him in much more historic terms. What he did to change the game and change the NBA will get recognized more as the Twitterverse and the people who don't understand how good he is fade away.”
His resilient admiration of Harden isn't relegated for public consumption, either. Morey also says he has no plans to take down the life-sized portrait of Harden he had commissioned by Croatian artist Filip Peraić in summer 2018.
“It's one of my prized possessions,” Morey said.
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