Harden finally apologizes for his messy exit from Houston

Myself and many other sports fans have been very harsh critics of James Harden and how he handled his last few months with the Houston Rockets. I am annoyed whenever any multi-millionaire sports star acts like a prima donna but with Harden it was particularly bad. It didn't just seem like he was intentionally being a pain in the ass, it was obvious that this was the case for anyone who was paying attention.

When he finally got his wish and was traded to Brooklyn, his departure messages were lukewarm and seemed fake. The Houston fans were not tricked by this and all of a sudden there were a lot of James Harden haters out there. I admit that even though I really appreciate the magic that "The Beard" puts onto the hardwood, I celebrated every tiny failure that he had once he started playing with the Nets.

I think Harden, probably due to PR pressure, doesn't really feel as sorry about the exit as he says, but at least he said something finally, because it needed to be done.


src

In an interview with ESPN's Rachel Nichols, Harden was asked about a lot of things but anyone who knows anything about basketball or just sports reporters knew that Rachel was going to eventually bring up the Houston Drama during their talk.

While Harden did apologize to Rocket's fans, it didn't seem very genuine and also kind of felt like Harden was defending his own actions, rather than admitting that he was being a bit of a jerk about the entire situation.

“I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful, I wasn’t trying to be selfish."

I completely disagree with that statement that he made. He was trying to be both of those things in order to frustrate the management at Houston into giving the all-star exactly what he wanted. In the end it worked and he got to go to exactly where he wanted to go as well.

"Credit to Houston, they didn’t necessarily have to trade me to Brooklyn. They could’ve traded me anywhere, but those are some stand-up guys over there."

Well that is one part of the apology that is true. If I was the management at Houston and had millions to burn just to "kick you in the ass on the way out" I would have traded Harden to Sacramento, see how he likes it up there - instead of capitulating to Harden's childish ways towards the end of his time there.

unnamed.jpg
src

"I apologize for how it went down, but I guess I had to do what I had to do in order to get to where I wanted to go. "

That much is evident and honestly, I think that is about as heartfelt an apology that we are going to get from one of the highest paid basketball players of all time. Personally, I still celebrate a little bit knowing that the Nets have gone 8-5 since adding Harden to the roster. It's still a winning record, but it isn't exactly the "Dream Team" that Brooklyn was likely hoping for.



0
0
0.000
5 comments
avatar

The beard is an excellent player, but since they are superstars, they believe themselves to be gods and can do whatever they want, like behaving like a kid with a tantrum who threw the pacifier.

0
0
0.000
avatar

A quick way for me to turn on any basketball star is for them to start acting like they are mistreated when they make more in a week than most people on the planet make in a year.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Yeah I hated the way he departed Houston and basically forced a trade even though he only had a single season left on his contract. Brooklyn seems to be getting it together with him there but they don't look like the dominant team that they were likely hoping to be. I reckon they make the playoffs and get eliminated in the first or 2nd round.

0
0
0.000
avatar

They are on a good run at the moment, but I agree with your playoff suggestion. They are just one injury away from not having 1/3 of their overall weaponry and they don't have a lot of depth on the bench either.

0
0
0.000