Adam Silver wishes Harden-Simmons trade handled differently

James Harden and Ben Simmons put on their best faces for the public following messy exits in their trade deadline swap.

One person who watched with great interest was NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who’s prepping for All-Star weekend in Cleveland.

In a conversation with Yahoo Sports, Silver noted this has been part of the NBA’s fabric for some time, and not just this generation of players.

“Players forcing their way out of situations is not new in this league. It’s important to have that context,” Silver told Yahoo Sports. “I’d love to find a way where to the extent there’s player movement, it didn’t happen in that fashion.”

Harden was accused of faking a hamstring injury his final weeks in Brooklyn, while Simmons has been inactive all season following a trade demand from Philadelphia. Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey was pretty vocal through the process, going as far as negotiating openly through media — an unorthodox method, to say the least.

“I accept that there will always be conversations behind closed doors, when teams are unhappy, or players are unhappy, [but] the last thing you want to see is for these issues to play out publicly,” Silver said. “One of the things that I continue to do in my role is to think about ways we can improve the system.”

Silver has long embraced the player empowerment era, so he seems to understand this is a byproduct of a handful of players leveraging their talents into movement. The tactics can be viewed as distasteful, but the results usually bear out in favor of players getting the changes that they want.

Harden will play for his third team in two years when he makes his debut. He forced a trade to Brooklyn from Houston last season, then barely stayed there a year before choosing Philadelphia as his next destination.

Simmons took a hard line with…