James Harden Insisted on Traveling With Sixers to Spend Time With New Teammates

When players are injured in the NBA, they don't always travel to road games with their team. Sixers star Joel Embiid has spent his fair share of injured

When players are injured in the NBA, they don't always travel to road games with their team. Sixers star Joel Embiid has spent his fair share of injured stretches back in Philadelphia rehabbing and working out rather than going on the road.

One would think the newly acquired star James Harden would take a similar approach. As Harden is battling a hamstring injury, which he suffered weeks ago, the All-Star doesn't plan to play until after the All-Star break.

It wouldn't be much of a big deal if Harden were to avoid traveling to Milwaukee with the Sixers this week to miss their final road game before the break. However, the superstar guard didn't want to stay back in Philly.

Instead, Harden insisted he travels with the team to support them from the bench while they take on the Milwaukee Bucks, according to Doc Rivers.

Harden's Plan

According to Ky Carlin of USA Today's Sixers Wire, Harden wanted to take the trip to Milwaukee to build team chemistry with his new teammates.

“Yeah, that’s great,” said coach Doc Rivers. “That was his suggestion. Not mine. He wanted to do it. He thought more time with the guys, more time on the floor, yesterday he went hard. Because of that, all the young guys had their hardest practice going by their pucks. They had more yesterday than they did the whole year and that was because they were watching James swinging up and down the floor so yeah, that’s huge.”

After getting traded to the Sixers last Thursday, Harden waited until Saturday afternoon to arrive in Philadelphia. He wasn't around the team for their two matchups against Oklahoma City and Cleveland.

But Harden participated in his first practice with the Sixers on Monday morning. The following day, the ten-time All-Star was spotted putting in some work with Joel Embiid and others following Philly's morning shootaround session.

Later that night, Harden joined his teammates in South Philly as the Sixers hosted the Boston Celtics. Now, he'll do the same when they face the Bucks.

Soon enough, Harden will make his Sixers debut as he's expected to return after the break. For the time being, he'll spend time around the team, working out and forming relationships as he looks to build chemistry ahead of the final stretch.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him for live updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.