(Credit: Associated Press)
James Harden, a 10-time all-star and new member of the Los Angeles Clippers, is scheduled to make his debut on Monday when the team travels to New York to face the Knicks at Madison Square Garden. With the trade, the Clippers become Harden’s fifth NBA team, having played for Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Houston, and Oklahoma City.
Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue has reportedly used the four-day break as a minicamp for Harden and the newly acquired P.J. Tucker before they face the Knickerbockers.
Harden said he is excited to play with his new teammates, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Russell Westbrook.
“I’m very elite as an individual, and I can fit in with anybody and make a championship run work,” Harden said. “All of us are on the same page. The individual stats are past us, and we have one goal. I think the comfort level of me being back home around family and having some really, really good players on this team, with all of that coming together, it just made sense.”
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The new Clipper iteration enjoys the prodigal son return tag as all four players, Harden, Leonard, George, and Westbrook, are from the Los Angeles area; Harden played for Artesia High School in Lakewood, Leonard for Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, Westbrook for Leuzinger High School in Lawndale, and George for Knight High School in Palmdale. According to Harden, all have a singular focus – winning an NBA championship title for the first time in franchise history.
“I’ve been knowing Russ since Boys and Girls Club in LA,” Harden said. “So, our relationship goes far beyond basketball. He was one of the reasons [for wanting to be traded to the Clippers]. He feels like he has something to prove as well. We got a goal that we’re trying to accomplish. And what better way to do it together [than] in LA.”
Harden did not mince words when it came to his exit as a player with the Philadelphia 76ers. He played 79 games for the Sixers after being traded there in 2022. His feud with one-time BFF and Sixers President Daryl Morey, a bromance that dissipated to the point where Harden refused to play in the Sixer’s first three games and vowed to “never be a part of an organization that he [Morey] is a part of.”
Harden also expressed his disappointment at the lack of attention paid to the money he lost when he played for the Sixers, doing his part, he believed, to help the team reach the NBA finals and emerge as champions.
“Taking less money [and] sacrificing my role, that’s not talked about. It just didn’t work out. Me leaving Brooklyn and thinking I was going to retire a Sixer, but the front office had other plans. They didn’t want me,” Harden said.
“If you want to be honest, [it felt like] being on a leash. All that plays into where I am today; I’m not a system player; I am a system,” Harden said.
The Sixers sent Harden, P.J. Tucker, and Filip Petrusev to the Clippers for Marcus Morris, Robert Covington, Nic Batum, KJ Martin, a 2028 unprotected first-round pick, two second-round picks, a 2029 pick swap, and an additional first-round pick from the Oklahoma City Thunder.
This isn’t the first time the Clippers believed they acquired players that would lead to a championship. Lest we forget Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and DeAndre Jordon, to name a few, players who wore the Clipper uniform but failed to lead the team to the promised land. But Harden plans to change the negative narrative surrounding him and the Clippers’ failure to wear the NBA crown. For Clipper fans, Monday cannot come soon enough.
