When Kobe Bryant said, “I don’t think that style is ever going to win a championship,” was he wrong? Awakening to an Instagram tweet that NBA shooting guard James Harden had been traded to the Los Angeles Clippers. LA’s second NBA team has struggled in the past, with notable superstars being great pieces for the franchise. Lob City Clippers was an era that did not live up to hyped expectations due to Golden State being the absolute team to live up to the hype during the 2015 era.
Yet right now, the team has a notable cast with Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. Yet both are scared of being healthy. Either Kawhi cannot play an entire 82-game season, whereas George, on the other hand, has been dealing with injuries since his horrific injury in 2017. While the Lakers have always flourished, the Clippers fell to a halt of true stardom. So why sign James Harden? Clippers probably feel he’s a piece for a potential championship contender. Yet the doubt I have for that statement is relatively substantial.
Winning championships takes a lot of work to do. You have to have the killer mentality. Kobe had a mamba mentality throughout his entire career. Greats in the league had intensity and drive to make players better around them. Role players look up to their star player as a leader. Yet, do I see that in James Harden? Not all all. Don’t get me wrong, Harden’s career in Houston was great. 2013 was the year both Harden and Curry were reborn into stars, but notice both players are pretty different.
Curry is the star player leading his team to championships, and Harden? Well, at least he has an MVP, right? I’ll give Harden props because he did try his best to lead that team, and let’s be honest, playing against the Warriors almost every playoff run he had been on the Rockets must be brutal. We only have a chance to beat the stacked team in 2018 with the help of Chris Paul, but that is a big what-if. Who knows? Chris Paul was on the Clippers when the team was stacked with talent, yet nothing was accomplished, so who knows what Paul would have done for the team? But looking back at his games on teams, you see something was off. Harden’s play style, second, is a pretty lousy way of scoring. James’s mental toughness is borderline horrific. In most essential moments, you’ll see a given-up Harden giving up on his team. I mean, he did it many times.
Yet we were blind to see it due to Houston not trying their best to help Harden in terms of a championship. Houston acquired CP3. Houston acquired Carmelo Anthony. Houston said let us develop a Clippers star in Chris Paul. It almost worked out, but like I said, we’ll never know. But I also feel that does not give Harden the green light to give up. Steve Nash’s Phoenix team went through hell during the league in the early 2000s, but did he give up? Kobe almost requested a trade from the Lakers but changed his mind and developed his mental toughness. Dirk was embarrassed in 2007 to, we believe, the Warriors. What did he do? They stayed and eventually won Dallas a ring in 2011. People can say the same with Lebron giving up on Cleveland, but he had nobody and eventually won Cleveland a ring. Yet for Harden, he always gave up when moments counted the most.
Transferring fat suit to fat suit after going to Brooklyn, that team had potential. Net’s were undefeated when healthy, but injuries affected the team, especially Harden. Injuries could have been healed, and everything would have been great.
Yet again, Harden gave up on Brooklyn and went to Philadelphia. The repeated cycle continues with him. Harden’s last game was disappointing. He scored only eight points in Game six in the second round against the Celtics after scoring 42 points in Game five. very inconsistent, but after the loss, all he had to do was bounce back from defeat. We came today and found out he wanted a trade, and he got it. Because I believe teams are starting to get sick and tired of the star. Many players in the league have expressed their frustrations before I understand that, yet in Harden’s case, he’s so entitled that he believes everything will go his way. You have to try to get teams to victory. His being on the Clippers will be a disaster because the Clippers don’t need Harden. They need to focus on both of their star players in getting healthy. I do not see the Clippers winning a championship, so I guess I’ll see Harden on a different team because you can see that basketball is something he does not take seriously.
