We have reached new, unimaginable levels of James Harden

On tour in China, Harden calls Daryl Morey names.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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Ubu Imperator; Max Ernst; 1923

On Saturday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Sixers had ended trade talks around James Harden and planned to bring him to training camp in a bit more than a month. There was no traction with the Clippers, apparently.

Then Sam Amick of The Athletic raised the stakes: his sources confirmed that the Sixers had ended trade talks, but then reported that Harden doesn’t plan to report to camp. This would set up a showdown between a front office led by Daryl Morey and a star player over aborted trade talks … again. Meanwhile, one of the top 5 players in the league is over there just looking for help.

Anyway, none of that was surprising:

• The Clippers have very little incentive to be generous with the Sixers given that Harden seems focused on a single trade destination (so long as Miami is off the table). The Clippers are in position to win plenty of games and could “wait” for the Sixers to accept defeat and trade Harden in November, December or January.

• Harden has proven multiple times that he will create an environment that is so toxic to get what we wants. Simply refusing to report to camp would actually be an improvement on what he did to the Rockets. It’s no surprise to hear he’s mad and doesn’t plan to just smile and move on.

This, however, is a bit off-script.

From The Athletic’s Shams Charania:

James Harden: “Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of. Let me say that again: Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of.”

There’s video, too. Here’s a YouTube rip of the video Tomer Azarly posted on Twitter. (Sorry, Twitter prevents Substack embeds.)

And yes, that marketing image and Mandarin script indicates that … James Harden is in China on a sneaker tour when he said this to what appears to be an assembled media contingent. A statement like that — repeated for emphasis at the end of a newsy weekend in his saga — made in China, about Daryl Morey, who of course created a non-minor crisis for the NBA a few years ago when he tweeted support for the people of Hong Kong amid protest during a Chinese government civil rights crackdown, an anodyne post that led the Chinese government to refuse to air NBA games for a while and has led to lost revenue and a bunch of political backlash stateside since.

James Harden is in China dissing Daryl Morey. An incredible and farcical turn of events.

I do (eventually) want to hear Harden out. Here’s what I’d like to know: