Tim Bontemps, ESPN Oct 29, 2023, 6:44 p.m. ET
PHILADELPHIA – James Harden participated in the Philadelphia 76ers’ pregame walkthrough and video session before Sunday night’s home opener against the Portland Trail Blazers, according to 76ers head coach Nick Nurse.
Harden is also expected to participate in practice on Tuesday at the team facility in Camden, New Jersey.
“James was here,” Nurse said before Sunday night’s game at the Wells Fargo Center. “He was here for the film session and the viewing. The report on him states that he has had a few good days of conditioning, is still in the preparation phase and hopes to be back in training on Tuesday. That’s about where we’re at.” .”
When asked if there had been any setbacks in Harden’s conditioning and development work in recent days, Nurse replied that everything had gone according to plan.
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“All signs are positive as far as conditioning and all those things,” Nurse said. “We just need to get him into live action and hopefully we can do that on Tuesday.”
Harden sat on the bench with his teammates during Sunday’s game, wearing jeans and a green hoodie. He was briefly shown during the team’s pregame introductory video, although Philadelphia did not introduce its starting lineup until before the game, meaning there was no opportunity to see how the audience would react to seeing Harden on the Jumbotron.
It’s been a detour up to this point for Harden and the 76ers, as the saga over Harden’s possible participation with the team this season continues to drag on. Harden requested a trade back in June when he picked up his $35.6 million player option for the 2023-24 season, and named 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey during a promotional appearance in China August called “a liar” several times.
Harden said earlier this month, in the only time he addressed the media since the start of training camp, that he saw no way to repair the relationship and declined to use Morey’s name – instead referring to himself repeatedly referred to him as “the front office.”
Meanwhile, Harden skipped media day and the first day of the team’s training camp at Colorado State University before showing up on the second day. He was then on the team for the next 10 days, only to be away from the team for another 10 days because the team viewed this as a personal matter.
Harden returned Wednesday, a day before Philadelphia opened its season in Milwaukee against the Bucks, when it was agreed he would remain in Philly for the rest of the week as he worked himself back into a position to play.
Sunday’s game, which represents the second half of a back-to-back game, will be followed by a day of rest on Monday, with practices expected on both Tuesday and Wednesday. If Harden gets through it successfully, he might be able to make his season debut on Thursday night in Philadelphia against the Raptors.
With Harden out, Tyrese Maxey has had two standout performances as Philadelphia’s starting point guard. The fourth-year guard posted 31 points, 8 assists and no turnovers in the loss to the Bucks before posting 34 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists and 1 turnover in Saturday’s win at Toronto.