James Harden’s time with the Nets was brief, complicated and ultimately a flop.
But the organization was as much to blame as anyone, according to Harden.
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“I don’t mean to, like, just talk down to anybody or whatever. It was just, there was no structure and even superstars, they need structure,” Harden said in an interview with Fox Sports in an interview that took place five days before the Nets fired Steve Nash and was published over the weekend (all times AEDT) .
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“That’s what allows us to be the best players and leaders for our respective organizations.
“I just feel like internally, things weren’t what I expected when I was trying to get traded there. I think everyone knows that. And I knew people were going to talk and say, ‘You quit’ and all that stuff, but then the following summer, the other superstar there (Kevin Durant) wanted to leave. So it’s like: Am I still the quitter?”
After the Nets traded for Harden in January 2021 to form what it figured would be a championship Big 3 with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, it wasn’t long before the experiment began to dissolve.
Harden had hamstring issues during the season and Irving was a part-time player because he refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Durant was also bothered by what kind of shape Harden was in and the two butted heads over it, sources told Fox Sports.
The Nets reached the Eastern Conference semi-finals but lost to the eventual NBA champion Bucks.
“Once it got to a certain point, James was just over all of it,” a Nets staffer told the outlet.
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Things were of course even worse last season. The Big 3 played just 16 games together before Harden forced his way out of town and was traded to the Sixers as part of a blockbuster deal that brought back Philadelphia’s own disgruntled star Ben Simmons and Brooklyn was bounced in the first round of the playoffs by the Celtics.
Meanwhile in Philly, Harden was roasted for taking just two shots in the second half of the Sixers’ listless Game 6 loss to the Heat in the Eastern Conference semis.
This season, the Nets and Sixers are fourth and fifth, respectively, in the standings, with Brooklyn holding a one-game lead over Philadelphia after Irving’s buzzer-beater on Friday night to beat the Raptors. Still, the question of what could have been will continue to linger until one of them wins a championship.
“Who said it didn’t work out?” Harden said of his time with the Nets. “We just didn’t have enough talent. There were better teams than us. But if we had won, everything would have been cool.”
-This article was first published in the New York Post and reproduced with permission
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