Why hasn’t Harden received more credit for taking a Sixers friendly deal?

Sixers’ Harden not getting enough credit for taking a pay cut:

The third reason is the speculation of the re-signing of Harden was heavily facilitated by an agreement by Harden and Morey for the team to improve using the money Harden could’ve gotten, and former Sixers owner Michael Rubin being involved. Everyone knows it’s a “lovefest” between Harden and Morey, as described by Morey.

Among insiders and fans, it was always speculated that Morey wanted Harden back and wanted to give it one last shot. This contract gives both parties a very favorable position to do so. So the ability to collaborate on a contract was probably not stressful for either party in the slightest. Then there’s the quote of Harden giving Daryl the green light to improve the team and leave the appropriate, respectful amount of Harden for this upcoming season’s salary.

The Michael Rubin aspect is two things to me, people reading tea leaves surrounding Rubin’s sale of the team and people remembering the whisper reports of tampering around the time of the Harden-Simmons trade. Can the two be true? It is certainly possible. We have seen odder things revolving around the NBA and the Sixers.

Rubin has reportedly had a close relationship with Harden for a while. Relationships are a key factor in luring superstar-caliber players to your franchise. With that type of relationship, it is feasible to speculate on how the deal got done.

It feels like a fun, NBA Twitter narrative to get us through August. We hope it’s all fun and games because you never know what tampering is in the NBA. If that happens to be the case, then the selfish narrative about Harden grows considering that Rubin and Harden were sloppy enough to get caught with tampering.