The James Harden lead Houston Rockets lost to the Los Angles Lakers by double digits tonight to fall to 3–6 and 14th in the West. That however, is not where the wheels fell off. The wheels fell off when the post game pressers hit. First off was Rocket leader, James Harden.
The Rockets are “just not good enough … I love this city. I literally have done everything that I can. I mean, this situation is crazy. It’s something that I don’t think can be fixed.”
YIKES. The face of the franchise. At least he loves the city. It is very easy to not say something like that, but James is clearly going all in on getting shipped out of town. Disregard covid protocols right before opening night, get fat, publicly destroy your team following a loss. That right there is a checklist of someone who wants to be traded.
The situation in Houston is crazy James. Its crazy that you think the culture in Houston in awful when you literally are the culture! Harden has been with the Rockets since 2012 and they have catered to his unorthodox style of play, trying to find pieces that can fit around him and who also want to stay with him in Houston. Different players in and out. Zero titles. The one common denominator? Harden.
Maybe its Hardens style and attitude towards the team game that makes it impossible for Houston to build around him. Maybe the thing James is most frustrated with is the thing Harden himself created. This isn’t to say that Boogie and a still recovering John Wall are the guys to get Harden over the hump this year, but this is not just a this year thing. Even though the Rockets did add an absolute super star in Christian Wood this year, so it’s not like they don’t have guys surrounding Harden.
It didn’t stop with Harden though!
John Wall, despite being new in town, was not afraid to speak his mind. And call me crazy, but I think thats about Harden. It is very hard to win games if your superstar and the guy who is supposed to lead your team is not committed to his teammates. So whether the Rockets are good enough or not, when Harden is saying publicly they aren’t, believes they aren’t, and is not even making an attempt to change that, then I’m not sure what his teammates are left to do.
Harden is exemplifying a situation that the NBA has let get almost out of hand. When superstar players are unhappy with their situation, if they throw a big enough fit, they can force their team to move them. Now I am in now way siding with franchises here. It’s a business, and there are teams who bail on players at the drop of a hat so it goes both ways. But when you sign a deal, and commit to a team, it’s deeper than just your ties to the franchise. You have a locker room full of guys who’s goal was to win a title at the start of the year, and they look to the super star to help get them there. When a teams superstar is OK with leaving his teammates in the dust because he is ‘unhappy’ then you become a bad teammate.
Thing in Houston in bad and its inevitable a change of scenery is coming for Harden. I really cant think of a better landing spot for him than the same place pre-season rumors had him going, Brooklyn. There are no culture issues in BK. The team is on the same page. I think Harden would fit in flawlessly there.
