James Harden didn’t participate in the Philadelphia 76ers‘ first practice at Colorado State University but is expected to arrive in Colorado as soon as Tuesday to join training camp, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
It is not immediately clear how soon or whether Harden will participate in practices, sources said.
Harden did not attend Sixers media day Monday as he continues to push for a trade to the LA Clippers. However, although the two teams have talked recently, there’s been no traction on a deal, sources said.
As a result, Harden remains on the Sixers and the franchise is still open to him returning to play for them this season. Harden on Friday was paid the 25% of his contract he was scheduled to receive by Sunday, sources said, after already having received the 25% payment he was scheduled to receive July 1.
“For me, it’s, it’s obviously we’ve kind of got Plan A, Plan B, right?” new head coach Nick Nurse said Monday. “We’ve got to get the team ready regardless. We’re expecting him to show up.
“He shows up? We go. If he doesn’t? We go. There’s two ways to look at it. And we proceed and we really get to work in building our foundation of what we want to do, getting all our principles in, all the things that we want to do, and play the style of play we want to play regardless.”
The Sixers are scheduled to hold training camp at Colorado State through Friday and will head to Boston on Sunday for their first preseason game.