“I needed to do what’s best for my career”: James Harden tries to justify his forced exit from Brooklyn Nets and calls himself one of the best teammates NBA has ever seen

James Harden feels that the ‘bad teammate’ narrative was created by the media after facing severe backlash for forcing the Sixers trade.

James Harden is notorious for being on 3 different teams in a span of 1 year 2 months. He amassed as many individual accolades as he could, and now he is on a ring chase. Although the move from Houston Rockets last year was understandable, The Beard gave up on the Nets too soon.

At the first sight of hardship, he packed his bags and moved on to the next big team. It is difficult to say how long he will last in Philly, given the Sixers‘ track record in the playoffs. The fans there can be a lot more brutal than in Brooklyn.

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James Harden claims to be one of the best teammates in NBA history

The media has labeled the 3x scoring champion as a bad teammate on several occasions. The forceful exit mid-way through the season only added fuel to the fire.

The duo of Chris Paul and James Harden was deadly in 2018. Only Houston Rockets came close to defeating the Warriors superteam. But the courtside quarrel witnessed by everyone in the 2018 playoffs ultimately led to severed ties. Harden was seen slapping CP3’s wrist and the duo split a year later.

The Rockets locker room opened up about schedule changes just to accommodate Harden’s partying after his departure in 2020. Although he looked like a good teammate in Brooklyn when conditions were favorable, he gave up when the organization needed him to step up.

“That’s for the media. The media say that. I feel like I’m one of the best teammates that the NBA’s seen, on the court and off the court.”

“Just because the current situation happened, whatever happened, happened,” Harden said. “It doesn’t mean that I’m a bad teammate. Me, personally, I feel like I needed to do what’s best for my career, help myself and be happy. It doesn’t harp on whether I’m a bad teammate or not.”

To some extent, his actions are justified as he is at the end of his prime. The Beard needs a ring to avoid the Karl Malone-esque trajectory of his career. Kyrie Irving’s refusal also played a huge role in his move.

But his actions clearly show that he is in fact not one of the best teammates the NBA has ever seen.

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