Bobby Marks Thinks the Sixers Should be Investigated by the NBA Because James Harden Took a Pay Cut
Bobby Marks on the “The Lowe Post” podcast said he thinks the Sixers should be investigated by the NBA because James Harden took a pay cut:
Let’s just connect the dots here. You have an owner, or former owner, in Michael Rubin, probably one of the wealthiest American former owners, billionaire. Fanatics. Just has this big party. You got all these NBA guys there. There’s a relationship with James Harden already. There was a relationship with James Harden when he was in a Brooklyn Nets uniform, there’s no denying that, and now you have him taking $15 million less where I was texting with a couple teams and I said what’s the $15 million made up with? Fanatic stock? And they said ‘maybe’ so I would think that if you’re the league and you’re looking at — hey, we got investigated for Andrei Kirilenko. Right? Kirilenko opted out of $10 million in Minnesota and signed with us for $4 (million) because we had a Russian owner and the league felt like that we were basically bankrolling him in an offshore account for the difference here. So, for me, I would think, because of the difference of what, as I said, it’s not $36 million, that the league should look into the Sixers, and Philly can say like, ‘You know what? He’s doing it out of the charity of his heart because he wants to get the team better’ and that’s great. And maybe it is, but if I was the league, I would certainly look into as far as what happened in Philadelphia with his contract.
First off Bobby, don’t stick your nose where it doesn’t belong. Second, we had Derek Bodner on Crossing Broadcast to explain why it made sense for James Harden to take a pay cut this year with the potential to make more from the Sixers or another team next year if he opts out:
It wouldn’t surprise me if the NBA takes a second rounder from the Sixers. There was a lot of buildup and rumor surrounding Harden and Michael Rubin’s relationship even before this. A slap on the wrist for the trade deadline tampering and lets call it day. Rubin isn’t even with the team anymore so in the end the league gets what it wants.
(Kinkead: who does Bobby Marks think he is? Sal Paolantonio?)
Here’s the full podcast with Derek Bodner talking about Harden’s contract, new NBA rules, and battles with Doc Rivers last season: