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James Harden Is Pushing Player Empowerment to Its Limits

The former MVP is very publicly declaring that he wants out of Houston, even though he had a hand in every major decision to make the Rockets what they are today

By Rob Mahoney  
Getty Images/Ringer illustration

If there was ever a doubt as to who holds the power in James Harden’s ongoing stalemate with the Rockets, it was trampled into the floor of a Las Vegas nightclub. Houston’s franchise player reportedly requested a trade to a team that would allow him to contend for a championship in the upcoming season, and then underlined that request by making the Rockets sweat. As training camp began, Harden hit up parties in Vegas and Atlanta, leaving teammates and newly hired head coach Stephen Silas to answer for his absence.

“I would just say I want him here, and I want him to be a big part of what we’re doing,” Silas told reporters on the first day of camp. Eric Gordon deflected questions about Harden while P.J. Tucker sidestepped them entirely. John Wall, in his honeymoon days with a new franchise after a yearslong rehab process from a serious injury, had to spend his time vouching for a superstar teammate who didn’t show. After days of sparse, noncommittal messaging to his team, Harden finally arrived at the Toyota Center on Tuesday at his leisure, mocking not only the Rockets but any pretense of coronavirus safety. The league office required that players quarantine themselves before and at the start of camp, as to best prevent the spread of a virus that has killed more than 1.5 million people worldwide. Harden, as evidenced by social media, couldn’t even be bothered to wear a mask as he broadened the definition of “essential activities.”

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