One of the main talking points in the newest season of Starting Five on Netflix centers around Clippers superstar James Harden. The program traces The Beard’s journey from being an explosive sixth man with the Thunder alongside Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook to becoming the face of the Rockets franchise.
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Harden evolved into one of the league’s premier players in Houston, even winning MVP in 2018. But before that rise, his departure from OKC was a major story across the NBA, and there is still some lingering frustration over how it all unfolded.
Durant was interviewed for Starting Five and recalled how pissed he was at the likes of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, who tweeted “good luck” to Harden after it was announced he was joining the Rockets in 2012. “They were so f****** happy we weren’t together because we were on their a**,” stated KD on the show. However, that’s not how Kendrick Perkins remembers it.
Perk spoke about KD’s Starting Five comments on the latest edition of Road Trippin. “He f****** knew before this. He f****** knew before James and the tweets came out before James left,” claimed KP, who seemed angry that Durant suggested otherwise.
Perkins, who was on the Thunder at the time, shared when he first found out about Harden potentially leaving. “KD came back, they were all at the Olympics. They had just won gold. James was there, KD was there, Russ was there,” he began.
“We went into training camp, and KD was like, ‘Bro we going to lose James.’ I was like, ‘Why?’ He was like, ‘Bron and D-Wade, all of them was telling him that he needs his own team. All of a sudden the contract negotiations started. I went to holla at James and he was like, ‘Naw. I want the max. I want to be a franchise guy.'”
The Thunder team Harden left is still widely regarded as one of the greatest teams never to win a championship. With Durant, Westbrook, and Harden leading the way, they dominated the Western Conference and gave the LeBron, Wade, and Bosh-led Heat a serious challenge in the Finals.
Perk doesn’t think that Harden would change a thing though about how it all went down. “If you asked James right now would he have rather stayed in Oklahoma or have the career he had when he left…I guarantee you he would have took that career and that path. I knew he was going to be good. I didn’t know he was going to be great.”
Harden became more than a superstar. He became a brand. Sneaker deals, endorsements. He accomplished everything he wanted in becoming an NBA icon.
Does he have a ring? Not yet. But maybe this is the year that he, Kawhi Leonard, Chris Paul, and Bradley Beal finally help the Los Angeles Clippers get over the hump.
One thing is certain. Harden is going to be a Hall of Famer. The impact he will leave on basketball, both on and off the court, will never be forgotten, even if some people from his past forget exactly how he got to the top of the mountain.
