The Philadelphia 76ers received a ton of praise for the free agent moves this summer, as the team signed P.J. Tucker and Danuel House to deals that should improve their three-point shooting and defense on the perimeter. The reason the team was able to make those moves was James Harden’s decision to decline his player option for next season worth $47 million and take less money, thereby freeing up room to sign Tucker and House outright.
Now, the NBA is looking into whether anything happened that violates its rules against tampering as the Sixers built their team. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the league has opened up an investigation into whether or not Philly reached out to sort out deals before they could.
ESPN Sources: The NBA has opened an investigation into the Philadelphia 76ers for possible tampering and early contact centered on franchise’s summer free agency class of James Harden, P.J. Tucker and Danuel House. Sixers have begun cooperating with league on probe. Story soon.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 29, 2022
While the obvious questions will pop up around House and Tucker, the latter of whom saw his name pop up in rumors in the days leading up to June 30 ad 6 p.m. that indicated a deal with the Sixers was done and dusted, Wojnarowski reports that the league will likewise look into Harden declining his option and signing a 1+1 deal for less money.
NBA's expected to pursue circumstances surrounding Harden declining $47M option to sign a 1+1 deal that cut salary to $33M and gave team more flexibility to sign Tucker and House. Some have wondered if another deal was already in place for future — which is against CBA rules.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 29, 2022
In his piece for ESPN, Wojnarowski specified the following about Harden: “Around the league, there have been questions about whether there’s already a handshake agreement in place on a future contract — which would be in violation of collective bargaining rules.”
This marks the second offseason in a row in which the NBA will open a high-profile tampering case, as the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls were investigated last year for the circumstances under which they respectively acquired Kyle Lowry and Lonzo Ball. Both teams lost a second-round pick as a result of the probe.
