James Harden has played with some elite future Hall of Famers in his career. He began his career with the Thunder, joined and led the Rockets for nine seasons, went to the Nets and 76ers before finally ending up in the Clippers. In his time with these respective teams, he has played with the likes of Dwight Howard, Kevin Durant, and Russell Westbrook.
In a recent interview with streamer Lacy on his offseason tour to China, Harden revealed his all-time starting five comprising himself and four other former teammates.
“That’s a good question. All right, let me think. Center Joel Embiid, I thought about Dwight, like in his prime. Oh, let me start over. Yo, that point guard position is crazy. You got CP, you got Russ, and you got Kyrie… let me just go um Kyrie, Russ, me, KD, and Joel… I like that team… small team that can run the floor, got handles, can shoot.”
This response did not sit well with NBA fans, especially Clippers fans, who felt he was not doing justice to his present teammates, Chris Paul and Kawhi Leonard.
“I’m taking CP3 over Kyrie & Westbrook, he’s tweaking.”
“Crazy how he didn’t add Kawhi up here, almost as crazy how he never won anything.”
“No Kawhi on here? Come on now!”
“Kawhi is literally better than everybody here.”
“Kyrie and Westbrick over CP3 and Kawhi is so fkn crazy dawg.”
“Notice how he ain’t pick CP3.”
Several such reactions flooded social media as fans pounced on Harden for various reasons, like a lack of a championship despite playing with some of the best players in NBA history.
To be honest, I do not blame Harden for skipping prime Chris Paul from his team despite winning 65 games in a regular season with him on the Rockets.
Ever since he left the Rockets, Harden revealed that he prefers being a playmaker instead of a scorer. Westbrook, Durant, and Embiid, in their primes, have respectively led the league in scoring; therefore, if this team has prime Westbrook, Durant, and Embiid at the same time, Harden does not need to worry about scoring and can be the primary playmaker for this team.
Kyrie Irving and Russell Westbrook are also proficient playmakers, and hence, including Chris Paul over either of those two solely for his playmaking would not be the smartest choice.
While Harden acknowledged how difficult the choice was to leave out Chris Paul, he may have included Kawhi Leonard on the list if he hadn’t been asked to include himself in the starting five as well.
Therefore, let’s not pounce on Harden and criticize him for a question that he correctly answered within the parameters he was expected to respond in.
