Harden has now requested a trade from the Sixers, and in the event Harden is not traded and then refuses to report to camp, different rules would apply to him because he is in the final year of his contract, league sources told ESPN. A separate clause in the CBA — which existed in prior versions of the agreement — holds that any player who “withholds playing services for more than 30 days after the start of the last season covered by his contract” could be deemed to have violated his contract and prohibited from entering free agency or signing with “any other professional basketball team unless and until the team with which the player last played expressly agrees otherwise.”
Harden has now requested a trade from the Sixers, and in the event Harden is not traded and then re…