Once upon a time, James Harden and Joel Embiid were teammates on the Philadelphia 76ers and made up the most dangerous pick-and-roll duo the NBA had seen in quite some time. The Sixers acquired Harden at the trade deadline during the 2021–22 season and watched as he helped elevate Embiid to his first league MVP trophy in 2022–23.
Then everything fell to pieces as Harden's relationship with Philly GM Daryl Morey fractured beyond repair, leading the star point guard to join the Los Angeles Clippers. In his wake, both Embiid and the Sixers have failed to reach the same heights. The last two years have been injury-plagued for Embiid and this past season marked the worst finish for Philadelphia since The Process days.
It turns out the divorce between Harden and the organization has even more ramifications than the public realized.
Speaking to ESPN's Dotun Akintoye as part of an exhaustive profile on the state of his career, Embiid revealed Harden no longer speaks to him and explained why he's hurt by that fact.
"No one knows this, but even James [Harden] is not talking to me," Embiid said. "That's the part I don't like about being 'that guy,' because it puts you in the middle of those situations. Because if you ask James, he probably believes I had something to do with him not being here. And I'm just like, 'I won the scoring title. You won the assists title. We had a pick-and-roll that was unstoppable.'
"It hurts when you feel like you haven't done anything wrong. When you think you have a relationship like that with somebody ... you lose a lot."
Harden's exit from Philly was rocky, to say the least. He publicly called Morey a liar, marking an end to their long and fruitful NBA relationship, and apparently doesn't even remember Embiid fondly despite the damage they did as teammates on the court.
The NBA can be a cold business.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Joel Embiid Explains Why He's Hurt by Relationship With James Harden.