Harden was absent from the Sixers for 10 days following the NBA’s mandatory gambling training, and then returned to the program for Wednesday morning’s practice before Philadelphia’s charter to Milwaukee that evening. When he rejoined the Sixers at their Camden, New Jersey, practice facility, Harden first met with Sixers vice president of athlete care Simon Rice and Nurse, league sources told Yahoo Sports, and it was Nurse who first informed the All-Star guard that Philadelphia preferred to monitor his performance load before greenlighting his return to game action
Harden did report to the facility Thursday morning to go through on-court activity with the Sixers’ three two-way players and several staffers, including G League head coach Mike Longabardi, who lagged behind the traveling party specifically to aid Harden’s immersion into full activity.
By all accounts, Harden returned to the Sixers with the intention to take the court alongside Embiid and Co., not to disrupt and distract and get his way to Los Angeles