Former teammate Kendrick Perkins urged James Harden to stop being sensitive after the Brooklyn Nets player took offense to Antoine Walker’s recent comments about him, claiming the Celtics made the right decision not trading for him and letting the Brooklyn Nets get him about two months ago.
It was a 4-team blockbuster trade that sent the Beard to New York, in a move that raised a lot of eyebrows around the league, with people wondering how bad things were going to be with Harden, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant on the same team. We have learned in the past couple of weeks that Harden only cares about winning and he’s willing to make sacrifices for the team’s sake. That didn’t matter for Walker, who still went after him and said he didn’t want him on the C’s.
“I’m not a James Harden guy, and it’s not personal but you can’t win with that style,” Walker said last week. “He’s in a very unique situation with [Kevin] Durant and Kyrie [Irving], but it remains to be seen … I don’t think you can win with his style.”
Harden took notice of that and he was asked his opinion on those remarks, but he made it clear he doesn’t pay attention to ‘people with no credibility’. What did he mean by that? It’s a mystery but Perkins disagrees with both players’ opinions.
James Harden's All-Star media session starts off with a bang: A reporter asks him about Antoine Walker's comments that his style of play can't win games. Harden says he doesn't pay attention to comments from people with no credibility.
— Kristian Winfield (@Krisplashed) March 7, 2021
The 2008 NBA champion reacted to those comments on ESPN’s First Take, saying he didn’t agree with Walker’s comments but also urged the 2018 NBA MVP and the rest of the players to stop being sensitive when somebody doesn’t like their style of play.
“I don’t agree with Antoine Walker with his statement as far as him watching the game of basketball,” Perk said. “I’m not questioning his knowledge. But if you’ve been watching James Harden, he’s been the best player on the damn planet. But look, I will say this. Players have to stop being so damn sensitive. This man get paid to do a job. He was asked to opinion. He gave his opinion. Whether we agree with it or not, it’s his opinion.
“Last time I checked Antoine Walker is credible,” he continued. “He do has credibility. When you look at him from McDonalds’ All-American in high school, from winning the championship at Kentucky, from winning a championship with the Heat, three-time All-Star. By the way, Antoine Walker was that guy. He had his own signature sure with Adidas. When you look at Antoine Walker on the cover of NBA Live in 1999. So Antoine Walker was that dude back in the day. So he has all the credibility to say whatever the hell he wants.”
Moreover, he doesn’t see why Harden says the Celtics’ icon doesn’t have credibility, wondering what somebody needs to do to be able to criticize other players.
“What is credibility? You have to play the game? You have to be an MVP to come over here and state your opinion when somebody asks you about it in the game of basketball? This whole narrative has to change. You could be a student of the game, you could not play basketball at any level and be a student of the game and could give your opinion about the game of basketball.”
This situation escalated very quickly when it could have been avoided. Still, former players will always give their opinion on modern basketball without any problem, regardless of how other players feel about it. Well, the things that happened with Shaquille O’Neal recently, and now with Walker and Harden, only show the differences between eras. They’ll never come to an agreement on certain topics and fans don’t know when it’ll stop.
