Angry Harden still in Houston as Rockets open season
Tensions surrounding Houston Rockets superstar James Harden’s desire to be traded to a contender have boiled over at practice, The Athletic reported Tuesday.
The three-time defending league scoring champion has had multiple verbal confrontations with teammates and threw a basketball at one of them, per the report.
The Rockets open the 2020-21 season tonight at home against Harden’s former team, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“Next question,” Harden told reporters Monday when asked whether the drama with his situation would carry over into the season.
According to the Athletic, Harden had a heated exchange with Jae’Sean Tate at practice Monday that ended with Harden throwing a basketball in the rookie’s direction.
The eight-time All- Star, who reported a week late to training camp, is known for his calm, laid-back personality, so “some around the franchise are viewing this (incident) as rising to an uncharacteristic level of frustration given his ongoing situation,” read the report.
In 11 NBA seasons, Harden has averaged 25.2 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.3 assists in 833 career games. He spent his first three seasons with the Thunder, after becoming the No. 3 overall selection in the 2009 draft.
Capturing his third straight scoring title, Harden averaged 34.3 points with 6.6 rebounds and 7.5 assists over 68 games last season.
P I E RCE , COL L I N S L EA D FIRST-TIME NOMINEES FOR BASKETBALL HALL >> Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce and longtime player, coach and broadcaster Doug Collins lead the first-time nominees announced for the
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2021.
Finalists are scheduled to be announced at NBA A ll- Star Weekend and those elected would be unveiled at the NCAA Final Four.
The Class of 2021 Enshrinement ceremony is scheduled to take place in Springfield next September. The Class of 2020 ceremony, headlined by Lakers star Kobe Bryant, was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic and has been rescheduled for May 13-15 in Uncasville, Conn. SILVER ADMITS POTENTIAL EXPANSION HAS BEEN ADDRESSED >> NBA commissioner Adam Silver addressed the topic of expansion, something that he has dismissed in previous years.
Although Silver said the league’s position hasn’t changed, he was quick to admit that the NBA has studied the ramifications of expanding beyond the current 30 teams.
“I think I’ve always said
that it’s sort of the manifest destiny of the league that you expand at some point,” Silver said. “I’d say it’s caused us to maybe dust off some of the analyzes on the economic and competitive impacts of expansion. We’ve been putting a little bit more time into it than we were pre-pandemic. But certainly not to the point that expansion is on the front burner.”
The NBA hasn’t added an expansion team since the Charlotte Bobcats (now Hornets) began play in 2004.
Speculation has revolved around Seattle being near top of the list should the NBA approve another franchise. Seattle previously was home to the Supersonics, who moved to Oklahoma City in 2008 and became the Thunder.
Each potential expansion team would need to pay a sizeable entry fee, a number that could reach well over $1 billion, and rumored to be as high as $ 3 billion per franchise. Those funds would then
be distributed to the current 30 teams, which operated during the end of last season without paying customers in the stands. It remains unclear when arenas might be full again.
LEAGUE PREACHES ‘FLEXIBILITY’ AHEAD OF UNPRECEDENTED SEASON >>
The NBA will take a flexible approach into the 2020-21 season that began on Tuesday, with protocols in place that deputy commissioner Mark Tatum feels will allow games to be played safely amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
After finishing last season at Disney World in a socalled “bubble” designed to keep inhabitants safe from COVID-19, the NBA’s 30 teams will resume traveling between cities for games even as the coronavirus outbreak continues to swell nationwide.
“We are very closely monitoring the situation with the pandemic here in the United States and in our cities,” Tatum said on Tuesday. “We feel very confident in our protocols, in working with our medical experts and public health officials and the Players Association and our teams that we have a set of protocols that will keep us safe and healthy.”
Among the protocols in place, any player who tests positive for the virus, even if asymptomatic, will not be allowed to exercise for a minimum of 10 days. In addition, the number of players traveling will be limited as teams fly back and forth to games.
LAKERS’ KUZMA CALLS CONTRACT EXTENSION A ‘WINWIN’ >> From his rookie year, Kyle Kuzma has learned to live with the trade rumors circling overhead.
At various times, he’s been considered a piece of a potential deal — for Kawhi Leonard, for Anthony Davis and last year for the extra piece that some thought might be better to help push the Lakers over the top. Kuzma, 25, has often been valued by what he could fetch in a trade instead of what he contributes on the court.
Now entering his fourth NBA season, Kuzma said he’s become “numb” to that existential threat, in a market and on a team where he’s wanted to be. After signing an extension on Sunday that keeps him under contract through at least 2023, for the first time Kuzma will be able to play a season when he’s not the subject of speculation for in-season trades.
That’s the expectation heading into the season after Kuzma agreed to the deal that kicks in next season and could pay him as much as $40 million over three years (the third year is a player option). Kuzma called it “a win-win” that will set up his family for the future, help him contribute to his troubled hometown of Flint, Mich., allow him to contend for championships annually and give him the opportunity to become a free agent in his prime.