James Harden wanted out of Brooklyn, Nets GM Sean Marks said
Nets guard James Harden looks on in the second half of an NBA game against the Lakers at Barclays Center on Tuesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Nets general manager Sean Marks made clear on Friday what NBA folks had suspected for some time now: that James Harden really wanted out of Brooklyn.
"James was honest with us and we were honest with him," Marks said on a Zoom call the day after trading Harden 13 months after acquiring him from Houston.
The Nets sent Harden and Paul Millsap to the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday for Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond and two first-round picks. The Nets will get the 76ers’ unprotected 2022 first-round pick and a protected 2027 first-round pick.
"We make no bones about it," Marks said. "We went all in getting James Harden and inviting him into the group. These decisions to move on from a player like that, of that caliber, are never easy ones. I just want to be clear that this is not something that you think, ‘Great, let’s just make a swift decision and move on from that.’
"I give James a lot of credit for having open dialogue, open discussions with me and with the group . . . over the last 24, 48 hours.
"I say they’re not easy, but I think that’s something we pride ourselves on is being open and honest.
I think it’s a move that enables him to have a fresh start and enables this team to have a fresh start without trying to push things to make things work. If we realize this is not going to work, short term or long term, then it’s time to sort of say for both parties involved, this is better off."
Marks would not divulge much about the conversations he, owner Joe Tsai and coach Steve Nash had with Harden leading up to the deal.
"I think with this, there’s a lot of those conversations that obviously have to remain private, as you would expect," Marks said. "Everybody understands that, and if James wants to allude to those decisions and speak for himself, obviously totally happy for him to do that.
"I think it’s just a feeling when you look [that] this is not working, whether it’s on the court, off the court, for a variety of different circumstances. Again, I give James credit for being open, up front and honest, and then again, that’s the way this organization prides itself on.
"It’s not like neither side did not want this to work. It was more a sense of like, look, this is the right time and it’s the right thing to do is to move on now.
"James has been up front from day one. The clock is ticking for him. He wants to win a championship and we do, too, and if he feels like this was not the right place to win a championship and we felt like we could continue with our goals of being that last team standing by making a trade, that’s why we made the deal."
Marks said he doesn’t know when Simmons will make his Nets debut. The 25-year-old has not played this season after asking out of Philadelphia.
"It’s probably too early to tell exactly when Ben’s going to be on the court since he’s currently doing his MRIs and physicals and getting signed off on that," he said. "So until we’ve seen him and seen the physical shape he’s been in, we’re not going to put him out on the court where it’ll be detrimental to his health and to just the sort of camaraderie that can be built within the team.
"So we’ve got to get him a few practices and so forth first and just see where he is physically and go from there."
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
