ESPN Sources: James Harden was not in Houston today but told Rockets FO he will be soon

Rockets just gotta wait for an acceptable offer and then pull the trigger...I can’t see this thing being salvaged

only trade that makes sense is with Philly if they end up offering Simmons, but don’t be surprised if Ben Simmons is pulling a “I want to get traded, and I only want to go to LA” type of move years from now

 

Yeah, I can definitely see this too. If the Simmons deal is real and that's the best, then sure. I just don't want to get back a meaningless draft pick or a bundle of guys that won't even equal up to one star player.

 

So we can stop boycotting Landry’s and start boycotting 13

 

Por que no los dos?

 

What does this mean? What do they want the league to do about it? Leave it to the league to complain about another thing with Harden and make him the scapegoat. Not saying he shouldn't be ridiculed but AD, Kawhi, etc. have done power plays like this in the past and no one bats an eye. Harden does it for technically 2 days so far and the league/media loses their ****. Just funny to me.

 

There is nothing legally they can do, either stop paying him( will make no difference to harden he has endorsements deals coming out of his ass) or tear up his contract which is exactly what he wants

 

Bench James Harden the whole season!

 

**** James Harden!

 

Different sport but if Laveon Bell can sit out and be fine than Harden definitely will be perfectly fine without those game checks. He probably makes more off endorsements. I still think he will show. But money doesn’t play much a factor here IMO

 

Of course it will make a difference. First of all, I don't care who you are.....losing out on $40M hurts no matter how you slice it. And more importantly, you really think the other 29 owners are going to be ok with a guy willing to sit out a season because he's "not happy" with a team that, on paper, has done EVERYTHING to build a winner around him?? It's one thing if this was a Kawhi situation where he feels like the organization was not looking out for his best interests and wanting him to play to the detriment of his health. This is basically Harden saying he doesn't like the owner, and therefore shouldn't have to play for him. That sets a RIDICULOUSLY bad precedent for the league. The Rockets, as shitty as Tilman is, are not in the wrong here from a legal or ethical standpoint. James Harden is.

 

Absolutely he can sit it out and wait it out. Tilman however can’t afford to lose his star attraction

 

Money always plays a factor when you're talking about $40M. It's baffling that there are so many people who quickly say, "Eh, money doesn't matter to him." Of course it ****ing matters.

 

This is gonnabe ugly if harden comes back to iso'ing for 16 seconds while going 3-15 from 3, after a month of the rest of the team playing team ball in practice.

 

He rejected a 50 million dollar a year extension. The guy can afford to take a year off . It’s Tillman and the Rockets who can’t afford to miss their star attraction

 

AD actually had the league force NO to play him. Although he had publicly requested a trade, he wanted to play. They were sitting him until they could get a trade as they didn't want to risk injury.

No argument from me on Kawhi, but I don't know what the argument between him and the Spurs were regarding his health. Maybe Harden publicly partying in Vegas during a pandemic makes the optics look bad for the league.

 

But Bell proved money doesn’t always matter. Harden has a significant amount of income. I still think he shows but I’m saying it wouldn’t be a shock if he chose to sit. At the end of the day he will still have millions coming in. Him losing money I don’t think is to important to him right now.

 

I can almost guarantee you there will be pressure from the league for Adidas to drop Harden if he decides to sit this season out. The league simply cannot have their most powerful players try and bully teams like this. It sets an absolutely terrible precedent for players to disregard their contracts, and sit out while healthy just because they are unhappy. AD played, Kobe played, Shaq played, Hakeem played. Harden has to play, or it's going to cost him way more than just a year's salary IMO.

 

Lol Rockets have made 2 WCFs with Harden. Barring some bad injury luck we might have had 2 championships already. Guys like Harden don't grow on trees. Once you get one you need to build a team around him and we have failed to that with Tillmans cost cutting.

 

There is zero chance of that happening. The players association would go nuts.