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      Don’t Be Fooled by Tyrese Maxey’s Smile. The Sixers Guard Can Ball.

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      Maxey, the second-year Philadelphia 76ers guard, is showing a maturity beyond his 21 years during the playoffs. And the Sixers need him.Many of the key members of the Philadelphia 76ers have become jaded by the realities of life in the N.B.A.Their mettle has been questioned at times, even though they have collectively played professional basketball for decades. Sometimes their ability and their durability have been questioned, too. They approach the season with a guarded demeanor that offers little hint of the joy they might find in the game they play for a living.Then there’s Tyrese Maxey.He laughs. He giggles. His most common facial expression is a smile. He teases his teammates.On the court, though, Maxey’s play betrays little of that. On a team with veteran stars and a coach who all have something to prove, Maxey is a linchpin whose steady play has given cover for the team’s lapses every once in a while.On Sunday night, the 76ers did not need a heroic performance from Maxey to tie their best-of-seven second-round playoff series with the Heat at two games apiece, even as Miami’s Jimmy Butler scored 40 points in Philadelphia’s 116-108 win. But Maxey still made a difference in Game 4: He scored 18 points, hit all six of his free throws and helped the 76ers maximize strong performances from their stars.The Sixers’ best players — center Joel Embiid and guard James Harden — combined for 55 points, with Embiid scoring 15 points in the first quarter, Harden scoring 13 in the second, and both making important plays as the game wound down. Harden’s 18 second-half points included four 3-pointers.Maxey has established himself as part of the team’s engine.Maxey opened the playoffs with a 38-point game against the Raptors, and he averaged 21.3 points per game for the first-round series.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press, via Associated PressThe 76ers are driven by their stars, but when the stars are limited by injuries or the ebbs of the game, Philadelphia has been able to count on Maxey. This was his second season in the N.B.A. and first as a full-time starter. He was an occasional part of Philadelphia’s starting rotation last year, and played limited minutes in the 2021 playoffs.This postseason, though, he made an immediate contribution. Maxey scored 38 points in Game 1 of the 76ers’ opening-round series against the Toronto Raptors, lifting Philadelphia when Harden’s play was inconsistent.“I saw growth,” Harden said about Maxey that day. “I saw, like, from being up and down, not really having consistent minutes last year in the postseason to starting and having a huge role on a championship-contender team. He just was calm out there and took his shots when they were open. He took his attacks when they were available. He just made the right play, which he does.“He’s ultra-confident. That’s what we’re going to need going forward.”Maxey nearly had a triple-double in Game 2 of that series, with 23 points 9 rebounds and 8 assists. Philadelphia beat Toronto in six games, and Maxey scored 25 points in the clincher.His next-best playoff performance came in Game 2 against the Heat. Although it’s said that young players and role players usually shoot better at home, Maxey made 54.5 percent of his field goals and scored 34 points in Miami. Philadelphia played without Embiid for a second straight game because of a concussion and a facial injury.In the 76ers’ Game 3 win over the Heat, with Embiid back in the fold, Maxey scored 21 second-half points after not scoring in the first. He was 5-for-5 from 3-point range after halftime, and made seven of his eight second-half field goals.“I just started being aggressive,” Maxey said of his shift in the second half. “I kind of let the game come to me.”He averaged 17.5 points per game during the regular season, and is averaging 22 points per game in the playoffs while playing more minutes. The higher stakes and heavier workload — about 41 minutes per game now versus 35 minutes per game during the regular season — could prove too much for many young players. But it hasn’t been for Maxey.The 76ers have come to expect this kind of play from him, so much so that guard Danny Green referred to Maxey in the same breath as Embiid and Harden when discussing production from Philadelphia’s key players during a recent postgame interview on TNT.Maxey showed his on-court maturity late in Sunday’s game, with Philadelphia ahead by 6 and holding off Miami’s final push.Less than two minutes remained in the game when Harden missed a driving floater and Embiid grabbed the rebound and passed to Green. He got the ball to Maxey outside the 3-point arc, and Maxey surveyed the court with the kind of studied gaze that often comes more easily to veterans. He saw Tobias Harris free on the baseline clear across the court and threw him an alley-oop pass with 1 minute 40 seconds left.“He’s ultra-confident,” Sixers guard James Harden said of Maxey. “That’s what we’re going to need going forward.”Matt Slocum/Associated PressAfter the game, Maxey’s youthful exuberance was back. He conducted his postgame interview beside Harris, a forward eight years older than Maxey. Before the interviews started, Maxey joked about how he’d been sitting in the locker room thinking about life.A reporter asked a question and Harris began speaking. His voice was hoarse and Maxey jumped back in his seat. Harris laughed before continuing, later explaining that he lost his voice when he was hit in the throat.A few minutes later, something tickled Maxey so much that he covered his mouth with both hands to stifle his giggles.In those moments, it was easy to remember that Maxey is only 21 years old. That he plays beyond his years on the court has given the 76ers hints of a third star for the future. More

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      Joel Embiid Is Carving a Path Into the Heart of Philadelphia

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      Embiid came into his own this season, positioning the Sixers for a run at a championship. Yet another injury may derail that goal, but he has earned respect.There was a time when it wasn’t certain that the Philadelphia 76ers should be placed on the broad shoulders of Joel Embiid.There were questions about his maturity, like when he danced shirtless onstage at a Meek Mill concert in 2017 while out with a knee injury. Bryan Colangelo, then the team’s head of basketball operations, called it “a little” disappointing. (This was silly.)The more concerning questions were about Embiid’s conditioning and weight after he was drafted, in 2014, and then about his durability, when he missed his first two seasons with foot injuries. That was when the Sixers were going through one of the worst periods in franchise history — also known as The Process.Fast forward to now: Embiid has convincingly put all those concerns to rest. Over the last two seasons, he has transformed into one of the best players in the N.B.A. and a contender for the Most Valuable Player Award.And he’s just not any superstar. He’s a Philadelphia Superstar — by and of the city — the proverbial man of the people. The kind who you might occasionally spot going for a jog through the streets of Philadelphia (sorry, Mr. Springsteen) or dropping by a local court to play pickup. Since the Sixers drafted him, Embiid has made being in Philadelphia a core part of his identity, all while a turnstile of other top players have left their teams. His Twitter biography reads “PROCESSING” — a nod to his assumption of The Process as a nickname. The term refers to a string of losing seasons in the mid-2010s as the Sixers stockpiled draft picks — picks that have, at least in part, led to Philadelphia’s success today.It seems appropriate that Embiid won the scoring title this year, making him the first Sixer to do so since the deeply beloved Allen Iverson in 2005. Embiid is on track to do what no other basketball player this century has approached: give Philadelphia basketball fans someone (not named Iverson) to truly believe in.Embiid has had to shoulder much of the load of leading Philadelphia by himself.Matt Slocum/Associated PressThis year, Embiid’s path to permanent enshrinement in Philadelphia lore hit a snag when he was diagnosed with a concussion and an orbital fracture after he was elbowed in the face during the final game of a first-round playoff series against the Toronto Raptors. The Sixers moved on to the second round to face the Miami Heat, the East’s No. 1 seed, and lost the first game in a blowout on Monday without Embiid. Game 2 was set for Wednesday.Entering the postseason, it had seemed that this would be one of the Sixers’ best opportunities to win a championship in decades — even better than when they were the No. 1 seed in 2021. They had a dominant Embiid and a strong partner to share the load in James Harden, who was named M.V.P. with Houston in 2017-18. They also have a cast of talented teammates, such as the second-year guard Tyrese Maxey. But it’s unclear when Embiid will be able to play again, and the Sixers are, at best, on even footing with Miami if Embiid is healthy.But even if the Sixers don’t advance, Embiid’s play has earned him a deep well of affection within his city. The Sixers were shrouded in drama this season as a result of the trade demand from Ben Simmons, who was supposed to help Embiid in the championship quest but never took the court before he was traded to the Nets for Harden in February. Instead of letting the season get derailed, Embiid mostly stayed quiet about Simmons and kept his focus on the court, where he averaged 30.6 points, 11.7 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game.Philadelphia has long been known as a difficult city in which to earn longstanding affection from fans. Only a few athletes have been able to attain that — and often not without significant bumps along the way: players like Julius Erving and Charles Barkley, and in other sports, the Eagles’ Brian Dawkins.Other stars (ahem: Simmons) are often run out of town.“A big part of my job is recruiting free agents directly or even indirectly in trade,” said Daryl Morey, the Sixers’ president of basketball operations. “And I think there’s a respect of the Philadelphia fan base that the players have that they’re like, ‘Will they accept me or not?’“Because if they don’t accept you, it gets ugly fast for everybody.”Marc Zumoff, who was the Sixers’ play-by-play broadcaster for almost three decades before retiring last year, said in an email that, “Philadelphia fans like to know they are part of the process.“Whether they’re cheering, booing, or chanting in unison, they want to elicit reactions from the players, coaches, officials or whoever is their target,” he said. “In Joel’s case, his expressions, gyrations or especially when he holds his arms out in exaltation, he feeds the frenzy.”He added, “Sometimes he reacts to the fans; other times, they react to him.”James Harden, left, was traded to the Sixers from the Nets in February.Matt Slocum/Associated PressEmbiid has come to be known for his playful behavior, on and off the court.Cole Burston/Getty ImagesThat’s not the case for every Philadelphia star, Zumoff said, citing a Phillies icon.“Mike Schmidt may have been the greatest third baseman in baseball history, but I think our fans wanted more outward emotion from him,” he said.If there’s a figure who understands being beloved as an athlete in Philadelphia, it’s Jimmy Rollins, who played for the Phillies from 2000 to 2014. He won the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award in 2007 and helped deliver a World Series in 2008.Winning over fans from Philadelphia “takes responsibility,” said Rollins, who is now an analyst for TBS.“When I say responsibility, I mean owning up to when you mess up,” he said. “Not making excuses, but showing up every day and playing with a certain style of grittiness.”Embiid has alluded to such sentiments, while also being willing to throw some of that same energy back at fans.“I haven’t forgotten but 2 years ago, I got booed, people in Philly wanted me to be traded,” Embiid said on Twitter before this season. “I even shushed them. Only the real ones didn’t but I just put the work in that off-season to be better cuz I knew I wasn’t playing up to my potential. Philly fans, y’all also gotta be better.”There are two ways to be an athlete who never has to buy a meal in Philadelphia ever again. You can help win a title, as the N.F.L. quarterback Nick Foles did in leading the Eagles to the Super Bowl in the 2017 season. Or you can be a larger-than-life star, like Iverson. Ideally, you’re both.Iverson wasn’t just a force in the city. He was a cultural beacon who affected the way players dressed, wore their hair and felt about themselves. He was also one of the most visible figures in all of sports. But the city’s fondness for Iverson went beyond his production and style. It was also about size. Iverson was barely six feet tall and constantly outplayed opponents much bigger than him. In the case of Embiid, he’s a dominant physical presence unto himself and is in part successful because he’s able to outmuscle defenders. Most players are smaller than him.Allen Iverson, who led the Sixers to the N.B.A. finals in 2001, is one of a kind, but Embiid is carving his own path into the hearts of Philadelphia fans.Tim Nwachukwu/Getty ImagesEmbiid has essentially carved out his own path. He’s a millennial superstar — meaning he’s aware of and makes use of the internet more than Iverson’s generation of players ever had to. It’s been one of the many ways Embiid has increased his reach in a way that’s been rare for professional athletes. A meme here. A trash talk Instagram caption there. The occasional joke to sate the masses.“It’s pretty rare to have someone as talented as him — the best player in the league, we would argue — and also be so aware of his impact on the daily lives,” Morey said.If Embiid comes back this series, he’ll be playing through, in addition to the orbital fracture, a torn ligament in his thumb. Just by taking the floor, he’ll burnish his image as a warrior willing to, as Rollins said, “find a way to make that impossible happen,” a willingness Rollins said is key to gaining the warm embrace of Philadelphia.Whatever Embiid is, he is Philadelphia’s.“I think he’ll always be a beloved figure no matter what,” Morey said. More

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      The Sixers Get a Win, but Not a Chance to Exhale

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      The Game 1 victory over the Raptors won’t ease the pressure on Joel Embiid and James Harden, who have played well but come up short in the end before.PHILADELPHIA — There was a nervous energy throughout the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday evening as the Philadelphia 76ers prepared to play Game 1 of their first-round playoff series against the Toronto Raptors.The Sixers have star power that should overwhelm most other teams, but their stars have had trouble in the playoffs before. Joel Embiid, who led the N.B.A. in points per game during the regular season, has never been past the second round of the playoffs. James Harden, who won the league’s Most Valuable Player Award in 2017-18, has not been past the conference finals since he reached the N.B.A. finals with the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2012.Did fans in the building dare hope that this team could win the franchise’s first championship since 1983?Could Harden and Embiid come together quickly enough, despite having played only 21 regular-season games together?The 76ers beat the Raptors, 131-111, avoiding the pitfalls that have ensnared them before against Toronto. They outrebounded the Raptors. They committed just one turnover in the game’s first 44 minutes. Game 1 offered hope.The Sixers had a muted response to their Game 1 victory against the Raptors: “It’s only one game,” Joel Embiid said.Chris Szagola/Associated PressBut hope has its limits. If they are to prove that this group can succeed where past versions failed, the 76ers must build on Saturday night’s performance. The pressure on Embiid and Harden did not dissipate with the win.“It’s only one game,” Embiid said, repeatedly, during his postgame news conference.Embiid scored 19 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. Harden scored 22 points and had 14 assists. But the real star of the game for the 76ers was Tyrese Maxey, who scored 38 points, making 14 of his 21 shot attempts.Late in the third quarter, Harden saw Maxey beating the Raptors down the court and grabbed the ball with both hands to throw Maxey a perfectly placed bounce pass that went nearly three-quarters the length of the court. Maxey caught it and scored with a reverse layup.That play offered an example of the 21-year-old guard’s value to Philadelphia.“He’s like the perfect player,” Harden said before commending Maxey’s ability to take advantage of times when he and Embiid drew multiple defenders.Maxey couldn’t stop smiling as he checked out for the last time. He sat on the bench with the scoreboard camera fixed on him as the crowd chanted his name over and over. After the game, though, he didn’t bask in the adulation.“The only thing I’m going to remember is us winning,” Maxey said. “That’s all that matters at this point. Now this is in my rearview mirror.”The crowd erupted with what felt like a mixture of joy and relief — Philadelphia’s performance eased the tension in the building. But there remained an acute awareness that winning Game 1 does not mean you will win the series.Harden knows what it is like to lose a series after winning its first game. In fact, it’s happened to him in the past two seasons. Last year, his Nets won Game 1 of a second-round series against Milwaukee before losing the series in seven games. Two years ago, his Rockets won Game 1 of a second-round series against the Lakers before losing the next four games.Fair or not, this postseason will be the start of a referendum on the team that has been assembled in Philadelphia.The Sixers replaced Ben Simmons, who was the first overall pick in the 2016 draft, with Harden in a trade in February.Immediately after the trade, the 76ers started beating up on their opponents. They won the first game Harden played for them, beating the Minnesota Timberwolves by 31 points. Harden scored 27, and when he was in the game, the 76ers outscored the Timberwolves.Philadelphia’s hiccups since Harden’s arrival, though, have been concerning. The Sixers lost to the Nets by 29 points in the first game between the teams since the trade. They lost twice to the Raptors in the final month of the season.Simmons has not played for the Nets yet, but one could argue that the Nets are better poised to make a run in the playoffs than Philadelphia, despite being the seventh seed in the East, because of Kyrie Irving and the transcendent talent of Kevin Durant.Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey was the game’s leading scorer with 38 points. The 21-year-old is in his second N.B.A. season.Chris Szagola/Associated PressHarden was not particularly efficient against the Raptors on Saturday. He made 6 of 17 shots and only 2 of 10 2-pointers. He made his impact in assisting his teammates.“I don’t think we’ve seen really what he can do,” Embiid said. “But he was comfortable tonight: made the right plays, found guys, went to the line a couple times even though they weren’t calling all his fouls for him. But it was good to see him aggressive.”Coach Doc Rivers agreed that Harden seemed comfortable in the offense.“You could tell. You could see it out there,” Rivers said. “He called plays himself.”Rivers attributed that in part to his decision to simplify the team’s playbook and focus on the few plays he knew they could run well.Maxey’s contributions were also critical to their plan. He sat on the podium next to Harden Saturday night and revealed a mischievous grin as Harden spoke about his postseason experiences.“I’ve been in the playoffs 13 years,” Harden said.Maxey interjected to call him old.“Sorry,” Maxey said, as if he were a child caught misbehaving, before looking away and then smiling at the 32-year-old Harden again.“I just wanted to play well,” Harden said. “I wanted to individually make sure I’m doing the right things, do what’s necessary for our team to win. Tonight I feel like individually I had an OK game, but that’s what you got a great team for.”For Game 1 the 76ers got what they needed, but there’s no guarantee that the same formula will be enough as the playoffs progress — or even as this series moves to Game 2 on Monday. More

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      Gene Shue, All-Star and Longtime N.B.A. Coach, Dies at 90

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      He had a seven-decade pro career, starting as a guard with the Pistons before coaching for 22 years, leading the Bullets and the 76ers to the finals.Gene Shue, an All-Star N.B.A. guard of the late 1950s and early ’60s who went on to turn losers into winners in 22 seasons as a pro coach, died Sunday at his home in Marina del Rey, Calif. He was 90. Shue’s death was announced by the NBA. His partner, Patti Massey, said he had been treated for melanoma.Shue embarked on his pro career playing with the old Philadelphia Warriors in 1954, the year the 24-second shot clock was adopted. He was an N.B.A. presence for seven decades in a journey with second and even third acts.Long after joining the Warriors as a first-round draft pick out of Maryland, Shue returned to the city twice, as a coach of the 76ers (formerly the Syracuse Nationals) and later in front-office roles. He had two stints playing for the Knicks.He ended his playing career with the Baltimore Bullets and later coached them in Baltimore and Washington. He coached the Clippers in San Diego and Los Angeles. He was an All-Star for five consecutive seasons with the Detroit Pistons, twice averaging more than 20 points a game. And he was named a first-team all-N.B.A. guard in 1960, along with the Boston Celtics’ Bob Cousy.Shue was twice N.B.A. coach of the year, with Baltimore in 1969 and with Washington in 1982, and he coached the Bullets and later the 76ers to the N.B.A. finals.“I’ve never had a perfect team, and I’ve always settled for something less,” he told The Boston Globe in 1985. “My whole history involves taking weak teams and turning them around.”Eugene William Shue was born on Dec. 18, 1931, in Baltimoreto Michael Shue and Rose Rice. When he played basketball in grammar school, the court’s ceiling was barely higher than the hoops, so he developed a line-drive feet-on-the-floor set shot. He went on to average more than 20 points a game at Maryland in his junior and senior seasons.A slender 6 feet 2 inches, Shue was selected by the Warriors as the third overall pick in the 1954 N.B.A. draft. But after six games with them, he was sold to the Knicks and spent two seasons in New York playing in a backcourt with Carl Braun and Dick McGuire.The Knicks traded Shue to the Pistons in 1956, during their final season in Fort Wayne, Ind., when the N.B.A. still included medium-size cities and travel was hardly luxurious.“Every time we flew from Fort Wayne to the East Coast, we had to stop in Erie, Pennsylvania, to gas up or we’d run out of gas over the Great Lakes,” he told Terry Pluto in the oral history “Tall Tales” (1992), recalling trips on the owner Fred Zollner’s DC-3.Shue was an All-Star with the Detroit Pistons from 1958 to 1962. He played his final two seasons with the Knicks and the Bullets, then retired with a scoring average of 14.4 points a game for 10 seasons.He began his coaching career with Baltimore in 1966, taking over a Bullets team that had won 16 games the previous season. His Bullets went 57-25 in 1968-69 behind Earl Monroe and Wes Unseld, whom Shue selected in the two previous drafts. They won the Eastern Conference title in 1971 with a seven-game playoff victory over the Knicks, the defending N.B.A. champions. But they were swept in the finals by the Milwaukee Bucks of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson.Shue became the coach of the 76ers in 1973, when he was asked to resurrect a team that had gone 9-73. He coached them to the N.B.A. playoff finals in 1977 behind Julius Erving, but they lost to the Portland Trail Blazers in six games. When the 76ers got off to a 2-4 start the following season, Shue was fired.Shue, right, was an All-Star guard for the Detroit Pistons when he drove to the basket by Richie Guerin of the Knicks during a game at Madison Square Garden in 1961. At left was the Pistons center Walter Dukes.BettmannHe became the coach of the San Diego Clippers in 1978-79 after they won 27 games as the Buffalo Braves. He took the Clippers to a 43-39 record, but he departed midway through the following season when they were losers once more.Shue had a costly run-in when his Clippers were facing the Bulls in Chicago in January 1980. After referee Dick Bavetta called a technical foul on the Clippers for having too many men on the court, Shue shoved him.Commissioner Larry O’Brien fined Shue $3,500 and suspended him for a week without pay.“I am a mild-mannered man,” Shue said afterward, “but sometimes you have to stand up and assert yourself.”Shue spent nearly six years in his second stint with the Bullets after they moved to Washington. He finished his coaching career with the Clippers in Los Angeles in 1989 after a season and half of losing basketball.His teams won 784 games and lost 861 over all.Shue stressed defense as a coach.He “taught the right defensive theories — overplaying your man, helping out, double-teaming the ball,” the Bullets’ forward Gus Johnson told Pete Axthelm in “The City Game” (1970).Shue’s two marriages ended in divorce. In addition to Ms. Massey, his survivors include his daughters, Susan and Linda Shue, and a grandson. His son, known as Greg, died in 2021.Shue returned again to Philadelphia in July 1990 as general manager of the 76ers.“There’s no such thing as nine lives,” he told The Philadelphia Daily News. “I spent 20 years in coaching, and so much can happen when you do that job. You can get fired, you can leave, but it doesn’t reflect on your abilities.”The 76ers’ owner at the time, Harold Katz, said, “Some guys survive. There are people like that, who continuously show up.”Shue remained in the post until May 1992, when he was reassigned as director of player personnel.He was still at it into his 80s — this time searching for the next N.B.A. phenom as a 76er scout. More

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      Nets Beat the New Look 76ers

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      The Nets were amazing. The 76ers were awful.Philadelphia turned out to celebrate and express itself in its own inimitable way. Around the time that Julius Erving and Allen Iverson were sharing a courtside hug, 76ers fans at the Wells Fargo Center were filing into the arena so they could boo Ben Simmons, a former member of their team, as he warmed up for a game in which he would not play.The fans, at least, were out for payback, eager to share how they felt about Simmons, a one-time star who had spurned their team and effectively forced his way out last month. Now employed by the Nets, Simmons changed into casual clothing for his new team’s game against the 76ers on Thursday night and soon found a spot on the visitors’ bench. He had a great vantage point to enjoy a rout.One game is not a referendum on two teams’ fortunes, or on a seismic trade that rattled the N.B.A. But what transpired in Philadelphia was jarring in all kinds of ways. The Nets were amazing. The 76ers were awful. And for two teams that could find themselves meeting in the postseason, the fallout could linger.“It was lovely,” the Nets’ Kyrie Irving said.“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” the 76ers’ Tobias Harris said.As the Nets went about their business of plowing their way to a 129-100 win, a few narratives, some of them familiar, surfaced: Who would want to face the Nets in the first round of the playoffs? Has there even been a more dangerous team that has spent so many months teetering on mediocrity? And what are we supposed to make of the new-look 76ers, a team that has been vying for the top seed in the Eastern Conference, after that debacle?“I don’t want to say they wanted to win any more than us,” said Doc Rivers, the coach of the 76ers. “But they played that way. It was clear. Every single loose ball. Every long rebound. They got to everything tonight. They blew up simple dribble handoffs that we run. They ran right through us.”It sounded as if those dribble handoffs were going to haunt Rivers. He said he had counted nine instances when Nets defenders intercepted them. (The 76ers had a lot of lackluster dribble handoffs.)A small thing, and correctable? Perhaps. The 76ers had been skating along quite nicely since the big trade last month, the one that sent Simmons to Brooklyn and James Harden to Philadelphia. In fact, entering Thursday, the 76ers had won all five games in which Harden had appeared in uniform for them, most of them by lopsided margins, including a 15-point victory over the Chicago Bulls on Monday. And Harden had been terrific, averaging 24.6 points and 12.4 assists while shooting 53.1 percent from the field, forming a fearsome tandem with Joel Embiid.But Harden’s performance against the Nets — 3 of 17 from the field, 11 points, 4 turnovers — did little to remedy his reputation as a player who is prone to struggling in big games. He was also outshone by one of the other players who was included in last month’s trade: Seth Curry, who ought to be overlooked no more. Against the 76ers, he scored 24 points while helping to space the floor for Irving and Kevin Durant.Afterward, Harden did his best to spin his night forward. Maybe, he said, the 76ers needed to get their butts kicked.“Since I’ve been here, everything has been sweet,” he said. “We’ve been winning games. So tonight was good for us, and we get an opportunity to come down to reality, watch film and continue to get better.”It should be noted that not everything is rainbows and puppy dogs for the Nets, who have lost 17 of their last 22 games. Simmons, who has not played since last season, is still working his way back into playing shape, and who knows how he will jell with the Nets once he returns. And Irving, who is unvaccinated, still cannot play in home games. Barring a change in public policy, that will remain the case in the postseason. But when Irving is available to play, look out. He scored 50 points against the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday, and he and Durant combined for 47 on Thursday.“Coming into the game,” Irving said, “I just told the guys, ‘Simplify it. Two baskets and a basketball. Don’t pay attention to what’s going on. No distractions. No fear. And let’s just live with the results.’ ”Before the game, Rivers was asked if he thought the 76ers and the Nets constituted a rivalry. Not yet, he said. The Yankees and the Red Sox have a rivalry. Duke and North Carolina have a rivalry. Rivers even cited the rivalry between the 76ers and the Boston Celtics, one that dates back decades. Rivers recalled that when he was coaching the Celtics and lost an important game to the 76ers, Tommy Heinsohn, the former Celtics great who was working as one of the team’s television broadcasters at the time, “almost killed me.”Still, the 76ers and the Nets are now connected in an odd way, having swapped disgruntled stars. They are also growing familiar with one other as title hopefuls in the same division. As for their becoming rivals?“Let’s make it one,” Rivers said. “Both of us want the same thing, right? We have the exact same goal.”For one night, at least, one team seemed closer to reaching that goal than the other. More

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      The Nets Were to Be a Team of Destiny. But Not This Kind.

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      The collapse of the Nets’ superteam of Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving echoes the falls of other starry groupings. But they had a chance to be different.WASHINGTON — Nets Coach Steve Nash gave a pained smile in the barren hallway leading to the court at Capital One Arena. The Nets were in the middle of an implosion, having lost nine straight games, soon to be 10. He was asked about his unequivocal statement just days before that James Harden, the Nets’ All-Star guard, wouldn’t be traded.“I still feel the same way,” Nash said. “Nothing’s changed.”When pressed, Nash said, “He’s not told me he doesn’t want to stay, so I’m working off our conversations, which is he wants to be here and we want him here.”It seemed like wishful thinking Thursday morning, the day of the trade deadline. Within hours, Harden was gone, breaking up one of the most highly touted so-called superteams in N.B.A. history. The Nets traded Harden, the former Most Valuable Player Award winner, to the Philadelphia 76ers for a package centered on Ben Simmons, a three-time All-Star who had not played all season for personal reasons.Call it an extraordinary ending, but not a surprise. Harden has played with Chris Paul, Dwight Howard and Russell Westbrook — all likely future Hall of Famers he encountered in their relative primes. None of those pairings worked out. Then just over a year ago, he forced his way off the Houston Rockets to team up with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant in Brooklyn. He had shown up to Houston’s training camp late and out of shape, then showed such little interest in games that he was told to stay home. The message to the Rockets from Harden was clear: Trade me or I’ll make myself a spectacle.The Nets knew who they were getting in Harden when they gave up so much to get him. They did it anyway. Live by player empowerment. Die by player empowerment.“I’ve been in a situation too where I’ve asked for a trade and I understand it,” Irving said to reporters, referring to his demand to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2017 with two years left on his contract. “So I’m not here to judge him. I’m not here to talk bad on James.”Late Thursday, the Nets’ Twitter account posted an image of Harden with the caption, “Thank you for everything.”“Make no bones about it: We went all in on getting James Harden and inviting him into the group,” Nets General Manager Sean Marks said at a news conference Friday. “These decisions to move on from a player like that of that caliber are never easy ones.”The SuperteamWhen Harden came to the Nets, he had established himself as one of the best scorers ever, a man who could single-handedly power an offense with layups, step-backs and a torrent of free throws.Harden is a brilliant scorer who is frustrating to defend. But in his last game with the Nets, against the Kings on Feb. 2, he made just two shots.Thearon W. Henderson/Getty ImagesHe had become known for wearing down defenders with his penchant for hooking their arms so quickly that it seemed as if he were being held — drawing fouls and annoying opposing coaches and players to no end. His tactics were becoming so prevalent across the league that the N.B.A. shifted its officiating emphasis this season to stop them. The change slowed him down for a few weeks, but then he adapted and looked, again, as if he might become the third superstar of a championship team.But it’s worth remembering that the Nets didn’t need him.If any player can match Harden’s offensive firepower, it’s Durant — a virtually unguardable forward too quick for defenders his size and too big for guards at his speed. His lanky frame and extended reach often make opponents look feeble as they put their hands up to try to block his shot. Durant is easily one of the three best players in the N.B.A. every year.Not to mention Irving, who is also an elite scorer who operates with the ball seemingly on an invisible string, and who can change directions at any second with either hand. Defenders have to guess which way Irving will drive — and most of the time, they guess wrong. If they guess right, Irving, with a herky-jerky hesitation dribble, can easily reverse. Either way, defenders are left in the dust.With Irving, Durant and Jarrett Allen, the center whom the Nets traded away with Caris LeVert and draft picks to get Harden, the Nets still would have been the most talented team in the league last season. Allen was clearly on his way to becoming the double-double anchor he now is for Cleveland. And since trading for Harden, the Nets have piled on more big names including Blake Griffin (six All-Star games), LaMarcus Aldridge (seven), Paul Millsap (four) and Patty Mills, one of the best backup point guards.The only modern precedent for a core group at the level of Harden, Irving and Durant was when Durant went to the Golden State Warriors, where he won two championships alongside Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. With Harden, it should’ve been déjà vu. It ended up being a repeat, just not the one the Nets wanted.In 2013, with the franchise struggling to attract fans in its new home of Brooklyn, the Nets acquired Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett from the Boston Celtics to team with Deron Williams and Joe Johnson. On paper, it was a brilliant move, giving the Nets a roster of All-Stars ready to compete for a championship, at the cost of lots of draft picks — one pick which became Jaylen Brown, a Celtics guard who was an All-Star last year — and cap space. (Sound familiar?) They won one playoff series before the team fell apart. (Again: Sound familiar?)How It Fell ApartIt’s unclear why or when Harden became so disenchanted with the Nets that he wanted another change of scenery. Marks said that trade discussions began in earnest in the last couple of days. Just a week ago, Harden posted a picture on Twitter of himself on the court with Irving and Durant with the caption “Scary Hours!”The Coronavirus Pandemic: Key Things to KnowCard 1 of 4Covid boosters. More

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      James Harden Traded to Sixers for Ben Simmons

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      Harden has been with the Nets since January 2021, when Houston traded him to Brooklyn. Simmons has not played in Philadelphia this season for personal reasons.The Nets traded James Harden, a former Most Valuable Player Award winner, to the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday for a package centered on Ben Simmons, the three-time All-Star point guard who has not played this season for personal reasons.“The decision to trade James was a difficult one,” Nets General Manager Sean Marks said in a statement, “however after recent discussions with him and his representatives we felt that this move would be best for all involved, as it better positions us to achieve our goals this season and in the years ahead.”The stunning trade brings about a sudden and unexpected end to the superstar grouping of Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant and Harden, who were, on paper, leading one of the most talented N.B.A. teams ever. But the three stars had rarely played together — only 16 games — since Harden was acquired from Houston in a trade last season, in part because of injuries and in part because of Irving’s refusal to be vaccinated against Covid-19, which has made him ineligible to play in home games in Brooklyn. The Nets had also barred Irving from road games and practices until mid-December.The Nets will also receive Seth Curry, a sharpshooting guard; Andre Drummond, a backup center and one of the best rebounders in N.B.A. history; and two first-round picks. The Nets are also trading Paul Millsap, a four-time All-Star forward who hasn’t played much this season.“I’m excited for our team,” Durant said in an interview Thursday on TNT. “Looking forward to finishing the season out with this new group and these new players.”He added: “I think everybody got what they wanted.”Simmons has yet to take the floor for the 32-22 Sixers this season. Coach Doc Rivers and the All-Star center Joel Embiid criticized Simmons after a poor showing in last season’s second-round playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks. In November, Simmons’s agent, Rich Paul, told The Athletic that the tension had taken a toll on Simmons’s mental health, and that he wasn’t ready to play basketball.If he is able to play now, the Nets could use him. They have been in a free fall, losing nine games in a row entering Thursday night’s game — dropping them to eighth place in the Eastern Conference. Durant hasn’t played since Jan. 15 because of a knee injury, and said on TNT that there was no timetable for his return but he was “doing better, for sure.” Harden had been out with a hamstring injury since Feb. 2, when he turned in a listless 4-point performance in a loss to the Sacramento Kings. Irving has appeared in only 12 of the Nets’ 54 games.The trade will reunite Harden with Daryl Morey, the president of basketball operations for Philadelphia. They last worked together in Houston, where Morey was the general manager. Morey resigned from the Rockets on Nov. 1, 2020, and joined the 76ers one day later. Houston traded Harden to the Nets in January 2021.After finishing the regular season in first place in the Eastern Conference last year, the 76ers are now in fifth place in the conference, two and a half games behind Miami.Because Simmons hadn’t played yet, trade speculation has been constant. As that intensified in the past few days, the 76ers lost three out of their last four games. To give his team a break, Rivers canceled practice on Thursday.“It was just so much stuff going on,” Rivers told reporters. “So many rumors. I just thought the human thing to do, instead of the coaching thing, was just be very straightforward with our guys. Tell them I get it.”Although Philadelphia has so far not been among the league’s elite this season, the team has reason for optimism.The Sixers still have one of the best players in the league in Embiid, who leads the league in points per game with 29.4, and ranks ninth with 10.9 rebounds per game.The second-year guard Tyrese Maxey has also played well in his extensive minutes — he’s led the 76ers in minutes per game this season, and averaged 16.9 points per game. He will be part of the league’s game for the top first- and second-year players at All-Star Weekend next week.Evan Easterling More

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      What the Ben Simmons Standoff Means for the Sixers and the N.B.A.

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      Simmons is the latest N.B.A. star to ask for a trade then try to force his way off a team, but Philadelphia is holding firm so far.Over the summer, Philadelphia 76ers guard Ben Simmons requested a trade, initiating a standoff that has dragged into the regular season.The organization fined Simmons repeatedly for missing practices, meetings and preseason games, according to ESPN. Simmons did not report to the team until near the end of the preseason and was suspended for the regular-season opener for conduct detrimental to the team. Simmons likely will not play for the 76ers again for a long while, if ever. Philadelphia hosts the Nets on Friday.In response to a report from The Athletic on Friday that Simmons had said he was mentally unprepared to play, 76ers forward Tobias Harris wrote in a tweet: “And we’ll respect his privacy and space during this time. When he’s ready, we will embrace our brother with love and handle our business on the court. That’s it, that’s all.”Here’s how the situation evolved, where it stands and what it could mean for the N.B.A.Here’s what you need to know:Why is Simmons so unhappy in Philadelphia?What is Daryl Morey’s trade history?How does Simmons fit into the larger theme of player empowerment in the N.B.A.?Could N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver intervene at some point?What does the absence of Simmons mean for the rest of the Eastern Conference?What are the larger implications of Simmons’s actions?Why is Simmons so unhappy in Philadelphia?Technically, we don’t know. Simmons hasn’t said anything publicly. Much of this has played out through anonymous reports in the media. There have been some signals from Simmons’s Instagram page, such as when he liked a post detailing how much the Sixers could fine him for missing games and practices.The tension between Simmons and the Sixers has been festering for years, despite Simmons’s signing an extension in 2019. Now in his sixth season, he hasn’t really changed much as a player (he missed his first season with a foot injury). He is one of the most versatile playmakers in the N.B.A. and an excellent defender, but he has not developed a jump shot, which has made him a liability on the offensive end in multiple playoff runs. He’s also a career 59.7 percent free-throw shooter, which means teams often foul him on purpose at the end of games.In December 2019, Brett Brown, the former 76ers coach, publicly begged Simmons to take more 3s. One month later, Brown told reporters that he had “failed” in his mission.Even though Doc Rivers replaced Brown before last season, there hasn’t been much difference. Rivers was Simmons’s steadfast defender last year, but after the Atlanta Hawks eliminated the Sixers in the Eastern Conference semifinals, Rivers told reporters that he didn’t know whether Simmons could be a point guard for a championship team. It’s highly unusual to see a coach publicly criticize his own player minutes after a tough playoff loss.On Thursday, Daryl Morey, the team’s president of basketball operations, said on a local Philadelphia radio station: “Doc Rivers defended Ben Simmons more than any human on Earth, maybe ever. If someone wants to interpret one comment out of 10,000, I don’t think that’s very fair to the organization or Doc Rivers.”He added, “To me, it’s all some sort of like, you know, pretext to do something larger by his agent.”What is Daryl Morey’s trade history?Morey recognizes the value of an All-Star, even if that player’s game is limited. He has never been shy about wheeling and dealing, typically swings big and often ends up on the right side of trades.Morey made an eye-popping 70-plus trades during his 13 seasons as general manager of the Houston Rockets and has already made several deals since joining Philadelphia in 2020. His most noteworthy deal helped shape the modern N.B.A.: Morey plucked James Harden from his reserve role with the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2012 for Jeremy Lamb, Kevin Martin and draft picks. In Houston, Harden became the focal point of an offensive scheme that centered 3-pointers and high-percentage shots like layups and dunks.Two of Morey’s most memorable other deals involved Chris Paul. Morey landed Paul in Houston in 2017 for a package that sent several players, including Patrick Beverley, Montrezl Harrell and Lou Williams to the Clippers. In 2019, Morey acquired Russell Westbrook for Paul and a package of draft picks.How does Simmons fit into the larger theme of player empowerment in the N.B.A.?In recent years, some prominent players have leveraged their looming free agency to force trades to where they want to go. Anthony Davis, for example, got to the Los Angeles Lakers from the New Orleans Pelicans this way.What’s happening with Simmons, though, is unprecedented because of how much time is left on his contract. Simmons is not a free agent until after the 2024-25 season. Even when James Harden, then with the Houston Rockets, forced his way to the Nets, he had just two years left on his deal. In theory, Simmons shouldn’t have much leverage. The closest comparison is Paul George, who had just signed an extension in Oklahoma City before engineering a trade to team up in Los Angeles with Kawhi Leonard. The difference is that the Thunder quickly acquiesced to George’s request, while the Sixers have been unwilling to do so with Simmons.“Player empowerment” is also difficult to gauge in this situation because it’s not clear what Simmons’s value is. While he has made multiple All-Star teams and is one of the best defensive players in the N.B.A., his unwillingness to shoot and his shrinking in playoff games have hurt his trade value. At least so far, teams are unwilling to throw in the kitchen sink and more to obtain Simmons. So is it player empowerment if the player is currently not empowered?Could N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver intervene at some point?The league has rarely publicly intervened in standoffs between a player and a team, and it is uncertain what, if anything, Silver can do to move the situation along under the N.B.A.’s collective bargaining agreement.The N.B.A. stepped in when the New Orleans Pelicans attempted to bench Anthony Davis in 2019 following his agent’s public request for a trade. Davis and Simmons share the same agent in Rich Paul, but the two scenarios are otherwise vastly different. Paul made the trade request for Davis in early 2019 with Davis set to become a free agent in the summer of 2020. The N.B.A. fined Davis $50,000 for the public trade request. Simmons has four years and $147 million left on his contract.“It’s something you never like to see as a league,” Silver recently told ESPN of Philadelphia’s situation.What does the absence of Simmons mean for the rest of the Eastern Conference?We’ve spent a few seasons watching The Process come tantalizingly close to fruition.Remember, Simmons and the 76ers were only a cruel bounce away from qualifying for the Eastern Conference finals in 2019 when they were eliminated in the semifinals by Kawhi Leonard’s soft touch on a buzzer beater for the Toronto Raptors in Game 7.An engaged Simmons, the one who is a three-time All-Star, fantastic distributor and a disruptive force on defense, lifts Philadelphia to among the top of the Eastern Conference contenders.Philadelphia earned the Eastern Conference’s top seed last season with a record of 49-23, and Joel Embiid is talented enough to strike fear in any playoff opponent. But expect Philadelphia to regress without Simmons or some type of a return in a trade for him and for teams like the Nets, Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat to finish atop the Eastern Conference standings.What are the larger implications of Simmons’s actions?Daryl Morey and Doc Rivers have said publicly that they want Simmons back and playing, though Morey is still trying to trade Simmons but said he doesn’t want role players in return.If the Sixers are successful in getting Simmons back on the court, then the dispute becomes a moot point. However, it would signal that teams might be less willing to give in to trade demands going forward.But if Simmons still doesn’t return, both sides will enter treacherous terrain. For Simmons, he likely will lose significant money during his athletic prime to fines and unpaid salary. Morey has said that this saga could drag on for the rest of Simmons’s contract. This would mean that the Sixers would spend Joel Embiid’s prime with a gaping hole in their roster that would limit their ceiling.As for the league, if Simmons becomes the latest star player, after James Harden, Anthony Davis and Paul George, to engineer his own path independent of the organization’s wishes, it could affect the new collective bargaining agreement, which could come into effect in 2024. League owners might want harsher penalties for players who try to force their way off teams. (Conversely, there likely would be significant pushback from the players’ union on this. After all, teams trade players all the time despite signing them to play for their particular franchise.) More