Bad hits, Jets QBs & Arthur Browne, newspaperman . . .

The Thunder clearly didn’t do themselves much of a favor when they traded away James Harden, but they sure did one for Harden, right? Capt. Jeter doesn’t seem to be enjoying South Florida so far nearly as much as he probably thought he would.

It’s going to be real hard for the Knicks, who have been such a feelgood story so far, to make the NBA playoffs without winning any road games.

Thomas Davis of the Panthers was originally suspended for two games because of a cheapshot, blindside hit against Davante

Adams of the Packers. The suspension, of course, was reduced to one game.

But he should have had to sit out for the rest of the regular season, whether he is a former winner of the Walter Payton Award or not.

When Davis finally talked about the hit that concussed Adams and could have done worse, he said he was just trying to make a block.

All players who turn into dirty players in moments like that say they were just trying to make a play.

Not only did the Seahawks need a 12th man last Sunday when they were getting embarrassed at home by the Rams, they clearly needed a 13th. And 14th. And 15th. You can’t say they hung an innocent man in Sen. Al Franken, but they sure didn’t give the political death penalty to someone who deserved it.

I keep wondering how we could combine the two greatest Christmas movies – “Love Actually” and “Die Hard” – into one feel-good sequel for both of them. Who would have thought in another season when the Patriots look like a Super Bowl Express that a story about a personal trainer –

Tom Brady’s – would make this kind of soap-opera news in Foxboro, Mass. And speaking of the Patriots? You hear the expression “why not us, why not now?” in sports all the time. But I keep looking at the trade of Jimmy Garoppolo and asking it a little differently: Why him, and why now?

Trump really is a great old line from Jimmy Breslin, the one about how if you don’t blow your own horn, there is no music.

It is worth noting that after a dozen games in this season, the LeBrons were 5-7.

And when I looked at the standings the other day they were a grand total of four games behind the Golden State Warriors.

The two UCLA kids who got caught shoplifting along with LiAngelo Ball had their suspensions from the UCLA basketball team extended for the entire season the other day.

But probably won’t think the next exciting step for them in their basketball lives is an exciting opportunity in Lithuania. My guy Pete the Jet Fan was watching Bryce Petty play last week and wondering just how bad Christian Hackenberg must be. It makes you wonder all over again how in the world the Jets could possibly have passed on Deshaun Watson. I don’t know what plan Mike Maccagnan has at QB for the NYJ next season.

But I sure do hope, for the sake of Jets fans, that he has one. There’s a woman named Kelli

Ward from Arizona effectively campaigning against the great John

McCain for his Senate job while McCain is battling brain cancer.

So Ward, whoever she is, makes you think Roy Moore would be a better U.S. Senator than she would. Merry Christmas to the great

Pete Hamill, a giant of newspapers and a poet of this city, who made me want to do this kind of work for a living, and who is still writing away in Brooklyn.

If you have never read his wonderful book “The Gift,” about his childhood in Brooklyn and his father, I urge you to buy it and read it now, because there has never been a lovelier Christmas tale ever told. And finally today: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year today to all who continue to take such pride in their work and who continue to put out this newspaper. And a special thanks today to

Arthur Browne, who prepares to depart as the editor of the Daily News, and end his own proud career here, one that began a long time ago as a Daily News copy boy.

Arthur’s real job, over all the years, was simply this: Newspaperman. Somehow, through it all in this business, through everything that has happened to the business and not just at the Daily News, it is still a title that means something honorable.

And always will.