Harden returns to 76ers before Thursday opener

Philadelphia 76ers guard James Harden rejoined his teammates for practice Wednesday, but he will not be traveling to either Milwaukee for Philadelphia’s season opener against the Bucks on Thursday, or Toronto to face the Raptors on Saturday.

That means the first time he could potentially play this season will be in Sunday’s home opener against the Portland Trail Blazers.

“He’s been gone for 10 days, so we’re in ramp up phase again,” 76ers coach Nick Nurse told reporters following Wednesday’s practice at the team’s facility in Camden, New Jersey. “So, like we would normally do, he will stay and get on-court work with our staff and with our players from the [Delaware Blue Coats, Philadelphia’s G-League team] and two-way guys and things like that and try to get him ramped up as soon as we can.”

This might be how a team would normally handle such a situation, but nothing about the standoff between Harden and the 76ers can be classified as normal.

Harden’s return Wednesday marked the first time he has been with the team since practicing with the 76ers last Sunday. He was away from the team all of last week, as well as missing practice both Monday and Tuesday, with what the team described as a personal situation.

Harden participated in parts of Wednesday’s practice. But Nurse said that he had to balance getting Harden out there with preparing for Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard and the Bucks on Thursday, a game in which Harden won’t be playing.

“Well, he was here, he was in some of the stuff early, obviously we’re doing a lot of game prep stuff so he didn’t take part in that,” Nurse said. “It was a pretty short practice at that. He was in practice at the start and he was there at the end, but we’ve got to get ready for a game tomorrow with the guys that are going to be playing.”

All of this comes in the wake of Harden missing media day and the first day of training camp at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, before participating in the final three days of training camp and being around the team all of the following week.

Nurse said Wednesday that Harden was fine with the decision not to have him travel, one he said was made in consultation with Simon Rice, the team’s vice president of athlete care.

“He is fine,” Nurse said. “He understands he’s got to get ramped up, and like I said, he’s been gone for 10 days so he understands it. He wants to get back to playing live, full-court basketball.”

Whether that happens with the 76ers, however, remains to be seen.

Harden has wanted to be traded away from Philadelphia ever since picking up his $35.6 million player option for the 2023-24 season back in June, and has been frustrated for months that his wish to be traded to the LA Clippers has yet to be granted.

Harden, who had been joined at the hip with 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey since the latter brought him to the Houston Rockets in a trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder before the 2012-13 season, called Morey a “liar” during a shoe event in China in August.

Harden said on Oct. 13 that there was no chance of that relationship being repaired, and he repeatedly referred to Morey as “the front office” without saying his name.

“No,” Harden said flatly, when asked directly whether he thought things could get patched up with Morey. “This is not even about this situation — this is in life. When you lose trust in someone, it’s like a marriage … you lose trust in someone, you know what I mean? It’s pretty simple.”

Harden has been one of the league’s top players for the past decade, winning three scoring titles and the 2018 league MVP award. He led the league in assists last season, partnering with league MVP Joel Embiid to become the first teammates to lead the league in scoring and assists since George Gervin and Johnny Moore did it with the San Antonio Spurs 40 years ago.

Nurse said Harden’s workouts over the next couple of days will determine whether Sunday is a possibility for Harden’s season debut, but cautioned against making any sort of declarative statements about where this situation is headed.

“I think that confidence in anything in this situation of what is going to happen … we can sit around and guess and talk about it every day, and we really don’t know,” Nurse said. “I hate to keep saying like who knows what tonight is going to bring and tomorrow is going to bring and all of that stuff, with where we are at on this, so we’re just keeping it day by day.”