Within seconds, the usual idiots who believe sports, and especially the NBA, are fixed by the league to benefit certain teams through favoritism from the officials jumped on the internet and spouted their typical, tired conspiracy theories. They’re wrong, and they look foolish, but they’re on the right track. Refs are human.

There is certainly a home-team bias at most high-tension NBA games. There is certainly star-player favoritism, again, heightened during high-tension games. Leonard and George are among the 10 best players of their generation. Leonard is, perhaps, the best defender of his generation. A fringe player like Oubre probably isn’t going to get either of those calls in the last minute of a game of great actual importance for both teams and great aesthetic performance for fans.

Tensions in the building were heightened because of Harden’s return.

Talk about a witch.

Harden’s Philly welcome

Harden’s weak and heartless play in the past two postseasons, his self-promotion and self-aggrandizement, and his holdout at the beginning of this season all served to turn him into the latest malcontent on the Philly sports scene. He was roundly booed all night.

The backstory: After his friend and former GM in Houston, Daryl Morey, traded Ben Simmons to the Nets for Harden in 2022, Harden had expected to stay in Philly forever and make more money than he deserved. However, his poor play kept Morey from overspending on his buddy, both with the economical extension signed after the 2022-23 season and by not offering him the obscene money Harden inferred would come his way for 2023-24 and beyond if Harden took less the year before.

So, Harden called Morey a liar, said he didn’t want to be his friend anymore, held out during the early part of the season, and forced a trade to the Clippers.

Harden also managed to get Sixers coach Doc Rivers fired, but Sixers fans certainly weren’t angry because of that.

After the game, Harden played dumb (played dumb?) about the booing.

He said he believed that his efforts and monetary sacrifice should’ve been better appreciated by Sixers fans during his tenure in Philly. He said he’d given his all, which, if true, is sadder than if it’s a lie.

The reality is, nobody was ever going to pay an old, depleted James Harden. His game fell off a cliff when, in 2021, the NBA Instituted its policy of not calling fouls in favor of offensive players who initiate contact. He’s a free agent after this season, but he’ll be a husky, 35-year-old fading star who averaged 29.6 points between 2013-2020 but who’s averaged 20.9 points since he turned 30. He’ll be lucky to get a one-year deal approaching his current $35.6 million salary.

There remains a degree of genius in Harden’s game — he had 16 points, 14 assists, and just one turnover Wednesday night — but he and the Clippers have underachieved, as all of his teams have done since he was drafted by the hyper-talented Thunder 16 years ago, usually because Playoff James shows up.

The Sixers led the Celtics, three games to two, in the Eastern Conference semifinals last year, then lost Games 6 and 7. Harden shot 7 for 25, hit one of five threes, shot four air balls, and was scared to drive the lane.

He played like a witch.

Can’t speak for his mom, his dad, or his grandma.

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