NASSAU, Bahamas — One day last week, Daryl Morey and Paul George took time to chat after a practice on a makeshift basketball court in the convention center of a luxury resort; the kind of quotidian conversations steeped with the happy vibes of training camp in paradise. In some ways, even such a low-stakes event felt victorious for the Philadelphia 76ers . Advertisement For nearly a year, the franchise and the All-Star had been tethered to one another in a slow-motion pursuit.
Nothing but the future of a franchise and the success of a high-wire strategy was on the line. Last summer, the Sixers set course on an audacious plan to bring George to the organization. When James Harden requested a trade out of Philadelphia after his tiff with Morey over his contract, the 76ers sought an exit strategy and their next pivot.
Morey began trade talks on a Harden deal with the LA Clippers by asking for George; he was rebuffed but undeterred. Always a maximalist, Morey lives by a simple approach to team building: get as many great players as possible, CBA constraints be damned. He set his eyes on his next star and the one he could pair with Joel Embiid as each seeks his first NBA championship, and the Sixers’ first since 1983.
The idea was fraught with many chances for failure. Even Morey concedes now it was unlikely; he puts the initial odds of success at less than 50 percent. “We were taking what we thought was the best plan to keep ourselves in title contention, but it definitely.