‘I’m not a system player, I’m a system’: defiant James Harden joins Clippers

“Damn, it’s small in here,” James Harden noted with some disappointment as he entered a packed conference room Thursday afternoon. Harden took a seat on stage, visibly uncomfortable with the claustrophobic atmosphere. Here he was in his hometown making his long-awaited first public comments as a Los Angeles Clipper after a drama-filled, lengthy request to be traded out of Philadelphia, with perhaps less fanfare than he expected.

They weren’t exactly there countless suitors for Harden, the Most Valuable Player of six seasons ago who demanded a trade from his third team in as many years and has built a reputation as perhaps the NBA’s least reliable superstar. He is an offensive savant and is almost universally recognized as one of the most gifted scoring talents the league has ever seen. But even putting aside his penchant for workplace discontent, the 34-year-old Harden has put together a less-than-stellar track record in big playoff moments — making trading him for 76ers GM Daryl Morey a tough sell. out of season.

Morey, of course, is also someone with whom Harden recently had a very public feud (reportedly over a contract dispute) and who now infamously called Harden “a liar” at an Adidas media event in China this summer (a place that isn’t) . He himself was not very fond of Morey), which did not exactly facilitate the trade that both parties wanted.

Harden didn’t mince his words Thursday after practice with the Clippers in Playa Vista when discussing his departure from Philly after a season and a half: “I left Brooklyn and went to Philadelphia, I thought I was going to retire as a football player. Six. The front office had other plans. They didn’t want me, it’s that simple.” He mentioned the $26 million pay cut he took when he opted out of his extension with the Nets in favor of the Sixers – reportedly on a handshake deal that there would be more money, which never was the case – and the smaller role that came with it.

He felt like he was “on a leash” in Doc Rivers’ offense, he said, making it clear that it wasn’t about his own scoring, but rather about feeling like he had no voice: that he wasn’t being respected as a basketball player. intellectual. Throwing some not-so-subtle shade at Rivers, he continued, “When I said ‘on leash,’ I don’t mean I just shoot the basketball every time. I think the game. I am a creator on the field. If I have a voice, someone who trusts me, believes in me, understands me – I am not a system player, I am one system,” he said emphatically. “If I have someone who can have a dialogue with me and make adjustments during the game, that’s all I really care about. It’s not about having basketball, or scoring 30, 40 points a night. I already did that.”

Harden made sure to underline the important talking points: that he no longer cares about individual accolades (“as long as we win the game, and everyone feels confident and good about themselves, that’s all that really matters”), that his only goal now was to “win at the highest level”. But from listening to him talk about his former team, it was clear that post-divorce emotions are still high. He sounded genuinely offended by the turn his long relationship with Morey had taken; In fact, it hurt that the Sixers didn’t agree with his self-proclaimed value and didn’t appreciate the sacrifices he felt he had made for the franchise.

Whether it’s the team-hopping, the unapologetic reverence for nightlife, or the gif-reaction-worthy eye rollHarden, consciously or not, has a reputation for being apathetic. But after Thursday’s introductory press conference, I got a completely opposite impression. In front of me sat a man with a giant chip on his shoulder. Someone who didn’t just care what people thought of him and his legacy. Someone who cared a lot of. The drama and punchlines surrounding Harden’s surefire Hall of Fame career aren’t just loud, they’re deafening. And he once again seems determined to silence the noise. When asked by a reporter Thursday if there was “anything else you want to prove” during his time with the Clippers, Harden nodded firmly and responded with a single word: “Everything.”