James Harden is Going to Be A Problem

Author: Jack Gordon

Editor: Brian Symons

James Harden has been traded to the Brooklyn Nets, and I think I might need medical attention after looking at what their roster has become.

Let’s get the Harden stuff out of the way: He has been terrible in almost every single way in how he has carried himself over the past month. On Tuesday evening, he somehow made DeMarcus Cousins look like a good teammate by comparison after openly calling out his team and saying he wants out during an interview. He hasn’t been committed to the Rockets or to his teammates in any way and it’s been painfully obvious that all the players and staff in Houston just deserve better. Looking at Harden during warmups, you would think that Raymond Felton grew a beard and drank some beers before replacing him in the lineup.

Meanwhile, Kyrie Irving, aka Pablo Picasso or whichever Renaissance artist he wishes to be referred as, has been flipping off the NBA and his team at the same time. We knew that there would be bumps in the season for the Nets with Kyrie, but it’s already been happening as his perhaps well-intentioned attitude has caused him to skip games and break protocols, leaving KD hanging.

But Harden stepped over the line, and the Rockets had to move fast before Adam Silver had a heart attack watching this unfold. They shipped him to the Nets and hauled in eight draft picks(!) in return. The Nets now have a core of Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving.

This trio of players is an unbelievable, all-star game level lineup for the Nets. Perhaps it will work out, they will prove us wrong, and they will work together and be so dominant together that they win the East without a sweat.

But I don’t like it. It’s true that in 2021, the consensus in basketball is that you should just put the best five guys out on the floor, no matter the position. I also believe that if the players are good enough and smart enough, any superstars can play together successfully, no matter the position.

But for that to happen, the stars have to be unselfish. If we’ve learned anything from the past four weeks, it’s that James Harden and Kyrie Irving are currently the two most selfish players in the NBA, who are now both together in New York, a market with some of the most intense media attention you can find.

Remember when Kyrie wanted out of Cleveland? It’s almost impossible to remember why that happened, partly because there wasn’t really a clear reason in the moment why he didn’t want to play with LeBron. But I guess he wanted to be the man on his own team, so off he went to Boston, which also didn’t work out.

Now, is Kyrie expected to be the third banana behind KD and Harden? Is that even possible for him to accept? And even though they’re both great players, the duo of Harden and Kyrie together is hilariously awful on paper, second-worse perhaps only to when the Lakers assumed that Dwight Howard wouldn’t make Kobe want to jump off a cliff.

And beyond this, the Nets biggest upside coming into the season other than their two stars was the strength and energy coming off their bench. Now Caris Levert, Jarrett Allen, Taurean Prince, and Rodions Kurucs are gone. Who is supposed to be their best player after one of the three musketeers subs out of the game? Jeff Green? Tyler Johnson? Nicolas Claxton? Maybe they can convince Steve Nash or Amar’e Stoudemire to come into the game after Harden and Kyrie miss half the season for breaking more covid protocols.

This is the definition of a blockbuster trade, and it’s going to be a whirlwind down in Brooklyn. Maybe this is a genius move for the Nets; after all, they did end up with the best player. Maybe they’ll be incredible and win some championships. Maybe this team self-destructs by March. At the very least, I know that I’ll be watching.

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