If Morey & Harden indeed hand-shook a near-max deal in order to do the 'temporary 2-year' contract, later reneging, then that's a pretty interesting situation I'd love to hear about as a fan. I guess the handshake deal isn't technically tampering under league rules, but if more info came out, it could still be explosive to some extent.

Still, that scenario's pretty extraordinary, and there's also the fact that Morey's historically been very loyal to Harden. Occam's Razor suggests that it's probably more a case of James just getting happy feet for the third time in a row.

It also works in to Harden's overall issues of being pretty headstrong about what he wants to do in the moment, such as completely neglecting his training for stretches in order to live the 'high life,' which is about as delicate a way as I can put it.