WORK IT OUT
Harden and the Rockets need to repair relationship to be championship contender
Harden and Rockets need to patch relationship to be contender.
The Rockets played a preseason game Friday night, and they looked good.
It wasn’t a real game, of course, but dressed to the nines, in flattering makeup, sporting fancy high heels, the Rockets winked through their fake eyelashes at James Harden.
“You still want this?”
The Rockets are wooing their own.
Guess what? Harden needs to do some wooing as well.
Harden and the Rockets have been together for eight years. They’ve had a really good relationship, despite a few disappointments.
Harden has let it be known that he wants out. The Rockets don’t want to let him go. He is too good of a catch.
Harden was an inexperienced 23-year-old when they first hooked up. He didn’t even know how special he was. Obviously, Oklahoma City didn’t.
With the Rockets holding his hand, Harden has blossomed into all that he can be. Great days, great years. He won’t get any better.
But Harden now has an eightyear itch, and it is fair to question his commitment to this relationship.
Does he love H-Town as much as he has said over the years?
Love should have brought him home last week in time for the Rockets’ first practice.
Instead, according to his presence on social media, Harden was in the streets partying.
Is divorce automatic after a night or two of living it up?
In the next few days when Harden finally talks to the pawns in media, as Kyrie Irving refers to us, expect more impressive spins than he has ever executed on the basketball court, where he is the most dynamic offensive player of this generation.
Yes, he is that good.
Since I mentioned peer group, let’s be clear. The issues Harden has with the Rockets and how he has gone about addressing them, aren’t about age or culture.
Harden is a middle age millennial, born smack dab in the middle of a generation that we taught so well, yet made so many mistakes in developing.
Millennials didn’t invent whining; they perfected it.
Entitlement isn’t even an accurate term when it comes to how Harden apparently feels about his NBA lot. Harden has very much earned the right to hold the Rockets to a higher standard.
Thing is, so have the Rockets, who have spent the better part of a decade trying to please Harden.
That they are still working on the relationship, still trying to make him happy, is as much a strength as a weakness. Harden would be a fool not to acknowledge that.
The franchise has shown its commitment.
It is time for Harden to reciprocate. Not via a cryptic social media post or an intermediary charged with passing along a message.
There are no inalienable rights in the NBA. Harden is walking, dunking proof that even throwing the ball down through the hoop doesn’t mean you will always get two points.
An official can wave off the basket.
My advice to Harden is to apologize and do better. Join newcomers John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Christian Wood, and work to be a championship contender. Lead.
My advice to the Rockets, if they want to hang in there that is, is to send Harden flowers, shower him with love. Maybe hook him up with a lap dance gift certificate for Christmas.
Do they sell those?
Hey, are they supposed to buy the guy who has a $200-million deal with adidas some gym shoes?
Many of you can’t wait to pretend to dine (or not) at the restaurant Harden is about to open so you can give it a bad
Yelp review.
Before you fake order a ribeye with A-1 Hate Sauce, give the man the benefit of the doubt and room to be better.
First, let’s assume the prime cuts at “Thirteen” will be better than that. Even my little brother, who bastardizes steaks by ordering them well-done, goes sauce free.
Secondly, until Harden speaks up and publicly asks for a divorce, and the Rockets go on the record with their marital discord, they are just having a moment.
Finally, the Rockets have had worse relationships turn out great. See: Hakeem Olajuwon, circa 1992.
It would be overly dramatic to assert that the Rockets can’t live without Harden. And vice versa for that matter.
For now, Houston will be much better off with the Beard. That’s why the Rockets are trying to impress him.
But Harden started this mess, so he has to earn his way back into this relationship.
If it matters to him, he will join his teammates at practice this week and try to impress them.