Harden signs $68.6-M deal
WASHINGTON (AFP) — National Basketball Association (NBA) star James Harden has agreed to a two-year, $68.6 million deal to remain with the Philadelphia 76ers, league sources told the Philadelphia Inquirer on Wednesday. The newspaper was just one of the US media outlets reporting the deal, which comes less than a month after the 2018 NBA Most Valuable Player declined his $47.4 million player option for the coming season so the 76ers could bolster their roster. Harden will reportedly make $33 million in the 2022-23 season in the deal that also includes a $35.6 million player option for 2023-24.
As Harden waited for his deal to emerge, the Sixers signed veteran forward P.J. Tucker and forward Danuel House. Harden, a 10-time All-Star, landed at Philadelphia from Brooklyn at the trade deadline last season in a blockbuster deal that sent Ben Simmons to the Nets.
He averaged 21 points, 10.5 assists and 7.1 rebounds in 21 regular-season games with Philadelphia.
After the 76ers fell to the Miami Heat in the second round of the playoffs, Harden said he would do “whatever it takes to help this team continue to grow and put us up there with the best of them.”
Meanwhile, Charlotte Hornets forward Miles Bridges pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to domestic violence and child abuse charges stemming from an alleged assault of his wife in front of their two children in Los Angeles.
Bridges, 24, had been charged by Los Angeles prosecutors on Tuesday with one count of injuring a child’s parent and two counts of child abuse “under circumstances likely to cause great bodily injury or death.”
He averaged 21 points, 10.5 assists and 7.1 rebounds in 21 regular-season games with Philadelphia.
Bridges is due back in court on 19 August.
He had turned himself in to Los Angeles police on 29 June after incidents prosecutors said took place “on or about 27 and 28 June.” He was booked and released on $130,000 bond.
After he was released, Bridges’s wife, Mychelle Johnson, posted photographs on Instagram that appeared to show injuries to her face and body.
“I hate that it has come to this but I can’t be silent anymore. I’ve allowed someone to destroy my home, abuse me in every way possible and traumatize our kids for life,” Johnson wrote.
“I won’t allow the people around him to continue to silence me and continue to lie to protect this person.”
Bridges’s arrest came shortly after the Hornets extended a qualifying offer to the restricted free agent, who averaged 20.2 points per game in last season, the fourth in his NBA career.