James Harden’s agent says the player is hungry this season and wouldn’t be surprised if he won MVP

Ever since James Harden publicly called out his own boss Daryl Morey by stating he was a liar and that he would never be a part of any organization he’s involved in, he’s clearly playing the card of the victim. If we dig deeper, we can see the connection between his disappointment and the fact that the club didn’t offer him the long-term, big money contract he feels he’s worth.

The thing with The Beard is, if he was a current player in high demand he would’ve declined his $35.6 player option for this next season and gotten paid in free agency, but no team has offered the Sixers what they believe he’s valued at.

According to his agent Troy Payne, the player is being disrespected not only by Morey, but by all the NBA, as they’ve forgotten what a great player he is. His representant recently went on a podcast to make sure everyone around knew the veteran was preparing for the best season of his career.

According to James Harden's agent Troy Payne, James is currently driven by an intense hunger, and Payne wouldn't be surprised if Harden becomes a contender for the MVP title in the upcoming season. 😤

Will he do it with the #76ers after his comments?
pic.twitter.com/9vsdS6grVg

— uSTADIUM NBA (@uSTADIUMNBA) August 14, 2023

“James has a crazy hunger in him right now,” his agent said on the The Hidden Gems podcast. “If he got an MVP this season, I wouldn’t be surprised. That’s what kind of hunger he got in him right now, just from the disrespect … you know, the free agency stuff, which I don’t really want to get into.”

Now things are about to get messier, as insider Ramona Shelburne recently foretold in a segment of ESPN’s NBA Today: “This is just the beginning of what James Harden is going to do to make life very uncomfortable for the Philadelphia 76ers going into training camp.”

Not only has Harden failed to honor his contractual commitments with two NBA franchises in the past, first leaving Houston for Brooklyn and then again to Philadelphia, he’s now played the victim card again and trying to publicly force his way out of the Sixers organization.

This is probably the same reason why he hasn’t built enought trust around the league for teams like the Rockets, who reportedly wanted to bring him back, and decided not to pursue him this summer. A similar situation happened with the Clippers, which are Harden’s favorite destination, who don’t seem to have offered enough for his services.

Other NBA athletes have taken Harden’s side, defending him from how he’s being portrayed by the media

Golden State’s Andre Iguodala was recently a guest on the “Gil’s Arena” podcast and shared his thoughts on Harden slamming his boss during a marketing event in China.

“When you go into a contract negotiation, know what your value and how you can leverage yourself,” he said. “Know what opportunities you have on the other side, your safety net. What is James’ safety net? Daryl Morey has a history with China where he can say something and the backlash from what he says, there may not be any because there’s a history there with Morey and China. So, it was a great move out of leverage by James. One, because it’s going to be hard to discipline James because what did he do wrong?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc5MCh5CCUQ

The Warriors veteran simply believes that most media outlets are taking the Sixers’ side and not even giving Harden a chance to prove he’s been betrayed.

“The headline from Woj was ‘disgruntled player James Harden’, why is he disgruntled,” Iguodala posed a question. “Why isn’t the front office ever disgruntled? They always put players in a certain light.”