Harden seems like he's had a great relationship with role players for the most part. It's other "stars" where the relationship seems to have gotten more sour, and those stars have had issues with other stars besides Harden as well.
Other stars can hold Harden accountable. Don't think Harden likes that. And those guys that went to the Clippers don't like to be held accountable either.
I guess but everybody hates Dwight. Blake and others have had issues with CP3 and KD had enough of Russ.
The role players in the league better get used to it. They still are extremely well paid and treated far better than 99.9% of the league. What I have been told is most teammates will tolerate special treatment if the star player practices and plays hard. That is why James, Curry, Harden and even Westbrook aren’t usually singled out.
I have no issue with superstar treatment. It's unfair but that's how the world works. Everybody knows Chris Martin is the vocalist of Coldplay but if the drummer walked around on the street nobody would recognize or pay attention to him. The stars get more privileges than everybody else. I mean, Elon Musk has a ton of degrees from universities he didn't even attend lol. Even these role players know that all of them were big shots back in high school or college they prob got their pick of girls and all sorts of preferential treatment back in their heyday. But there's also a fine line when it comes to ass kissing. Too much will cause a divide in the locker room and invalidate the whole reason you give superstar treatment in the first place which is cozy up to the superstar and make him feel good about the franchise. I feel like the Clippers should've been clear on what their culture is and drew a line in the sand. An example of this was Rocket's policy of never giving no trade clauses under Morey and Leslie Alexander. It applied to everyone, even free agents they were trying to court. As a result everyone could accept that. If they bent the rules for Harden but then told everyone else Rox has a policy of no no trade clauses then it would've def rubbed some people the wrong way. In the Clippers case Rivers went on and on about the grit and hustle his team showed so obv they identified their core was hard work, grit and determination. But then they allowed RestWhi and Playoff P to miss all those practices and games obviously that would destroy their identity and cohesion. At that point they should've known Harrell and co. wouldn't be ok with the stars slacking off while they are expected to bust their ass every night.
