Coach Doc Rivers said that any allegations of the 76ers tampering are “not true,” as he and president of basketball operations Daryl Morey had no idea that James Harden would opt out of his contract prior to free agency.

The NBA is currently investigating whether the Sixers had early contact with Harden, P.J. Tucker and Danuel House.

“… First of all, we didn’t know what we were going to do with the money we were getting [when Harden opted out of his $47 million player option],” Rivers said, via ESPN. “And listen, James won, too, because James could’ve opted into a one-year deal. Instead, we gave him three years. And so both parties won in a lot of ways. Listen, it worked out for us, it worked out for James.

“I guarantee you Daryl Morey had no idea what James was going to do. I remember talking to him on the eve of when James could opt in or out, and he was like, ‘We’ve got five hours left.’ I mean, that was Daryl Morey, so that tells you he had no idea … I really believed that James was not going to opt in, that he was going to try to do a longer-term deal. But I didn’t know, I can tell you that. That’s for sure.”

This article first appeared on Hoops Wire and was syndicated with permission.

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