The Ben Simmons-James Harden trade saga is now over, with the two finally being traded right for one another right at the deadline. There is no doubt that fans of both the Brooklyn Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers were ready for this to happen.
It seems obvious from the previous reporting on this subject that James Harden wanted out. Perhaps some animosity with Kyrie Irving was the reason for this. Joe Vardon of The Athletic has recently revealed that James Harden and Kyrie Irving had some issues with one another during their time as teammates.
Harden, according to sources who were in the room when it happened, was seated in front of his locker, watching Irving, and looked at Kyrie like he had three heads.
Definitely a weird vibe between them,” one source said. “You could tell Harden was annoyed, and Kyrie wasn’t feeling James.”
In two seasons, Harden has quit on two teams until they traded him. When he tries to explain this one, my guess is he will not come out and say, explicitly, that he wanted to be as far away from Kyrie as possible. But make no mistake, Irving had something to do with it.
Harden has said publicly he was frustrated the Nets weren’t playing better. He saw how much the Nets need Irving on the court, all the time, and did the math on how nuts that would be to play home playoff games without Irving, even though Irving isn’t hurt.
There’s no question that sometimes friction in the locker room causes superteams to fail. It seems as though that has happened here. With that being said, the Brooklyn Nets are still in a solid position to compete, as they ended up acquiring All-Star Ben Simmons.
Hopefully, we see this trade work out for both the Philadelphia 76ers and the Brooklyn Nets. Perhaps we’ll even see them play a playoff series against one another, and seeing them face-off would be amazing.
