The NBA Decided To Drop The Hammer On James Harden For His Efforts Of Trying To Force His Way Out Of Philly

Tim Nwachukwu. Getty Images.

Yesterday, we learned that the root of James Harden calling Daryl Morey a liar wasn't because of any previous under-the-table dealings that Morey had reneged on, it was because he apparently told Harden he would trade him "quickly" after he opted into his $35M player option only to actually do the complete opposite. No CBA violation, no backroom dealings, nothing juicy, honestly it was a bit of a letdown. With all that talk from Harden about making things "uncomfortable," he made it seem like he had Morey by the short hairs. As it turns out, it seems like he was just being a big baby after not getting what he wanted (despite millions and millions of dollars).

Of course, just because Morey didn't violate the CBA doesn't mean the NBA was going to let this shit slide. I'm not really sure what rule Harden broke when he publicly called Morey a liar, but word started to spread that Adam Silver and the league were going to drop the hammer

A "substantial" fine? OK, what are we talking here. A million? 10 million? 

Ha, don't be ridiculous

Now to be fair, 100K is the max the league is allowed to fine a player, but still. Are we sure Harden is even going to notice something like that? A 100K is a normal Tuesday at the club for someone like Harden. This is a player who has earned $301M in just basketball contracts alone. Not counting a single penny of endorsements. Do we think Harden takes a look at that fine and says 

"Damn, OK maybe I need to tone it down a little bit"

Helllll no. If anything this probably pisses him off even more. If you didn't violate the rules, why are you getting fined? You can do that? Maybe this was more of a warning from Silver and the league to stop making all this shit public, but in the current NBA that Silver created, that is exactly how players get shit done. They make things messy and force their way out of town. Harden isn't the first and he certainly won't be the last.

While not everyone is willing to put their GM on blast like Harden did publicly, this does feel like a slippery slope. Now there's precedent, so my question is where is the line? How is this any different from say Marcus Smart who after his trade talked about how Brad Stevens and the team told him he was safe, only to trade him basically a week later? He was essentially calling them liars without saying the word "liar", and there's no fine there. Is this mostly just a James Harden fine because he keeps doing shit like this? Again, he's not the only NBA player to demand a trade and try and force his way to a particular team. I don't want to defend the guy because clearly he's being a bit of an asshole with this whole thing, but it is a slippery slope.

I would LOVE to see footage of Harden learning about this fine though. My guess is it probably went something like this