James Harden will be turning 35 years of age in August, but he remains in search of his first championship in the NBA. Time is ticking on the Los Angeles Clippers guard's career to the point where conversations about what kind of legacy he wants to leave when his career is over are ever pertinent. During the Adidas Eurocamp in Italy in recent days, Harden said that he wants to be remembered, first and foremost, as a winner.

This, however, did not sit well with Stephen A. Smith. Speaking on ESPN's First Take, Smith went scorched earth on the Clippers guard, with the pundit questioning how in the world Harden could be perceived as a winner.

“It might be the most embarrassing quote that James Harden has ever given about himself. My brother, James Harden is a phenomenal basketball talent. Winner? You don't get to have that,” Smith said. “One NBA Finals, that was 12 years ago. In that series, you were considered somebody that was M-I-A. You were nowhere to be found.”

Stephen A. Smith also brought up the times when James Harden faltered in the playoffs back when he was with the Houston Rockets, as well as the times he purportedly quit on his teams.

“There are several incidents in Houston where you came up significantly small, particularly the closeout game against San Antonio in 2016. Not to mention, forced your way out of Houston. Forced your way out of Brooklyn. Forced your way out of Philadelphia,” Smith added.

“There are a multitude of occasions where the narrative in the basketball community was that he quit. How can you be perceived as a winner?”

It's not too late for James Harden to try and shift the narrative of his career. But the Clippers appear to be a sinking ship, which may not do much for Harden's hopes of being remembered the way he wants people to remember him.

James Harden is not wrong

It's fair to question James Harden's view of himself as a “winner”, like Stephen A. Smith did. He does have a few black eyes in his resume, and he came up short in the playoffs time and time again. Now that he's way past his prime, the clock is ticking for Harden to nab that elusive championship and change fan perception of him for good.

But Harden also guarantees his teams a spot in the playoffs, which is something that couldn't be said for most of the players in the NBA. In Harden's eight seasons with the Rockets, they made the playoffs in every one of them. Their record with Harden is 397-224, which is good for a win percentage of 63.9 percent, which averages to around 52 wins per season.

In Harden's next stops, his teams also made the playoffs; the Brooklyn Nets were a Kevin Durant-shoe away from making it to the Conference Finals in 2021, while the Philadelphia 76ers could have broken their ECF duck had Joel Embiid played better (the responsibility is on him, since he is the team's best player and the MVP in 2023).

And then with the Clippers, Harden turned them into one of the most lethal teams in the association; they won 26 of 31 games at one point this past season, looking like legitimate contenders in the process, and if Kawhi Leonard were healthy, perhaps the Clippers could have made a deeper run.

That was without even going into how close the Rockets came to winning it all, especially in 2018. They were up 3-2 on the Golden State Warriors, but Harden couldn't get the job done after his star backcourt partner, Chris Paul, fell prey to the injury bug. Harden didn't help matters, but is it his fault that his team missed 27 straight threes in Game 7 of the aforementioned series?

If the definition of winning in the NBA is limited to winning championships, then yes, James Harden does not meet the criteria. But Harden has been a prominent part of plenty of winning teams, and no one can take that away from him.

Can the Clippers break through?

Health will always be the most important thing for a Clippers franchise that has been very unlucky over the past five seasons. But even then, there is plenty of uncertainty surrounding the Clippers for this offseason.

James Harden will be entering free agency, and so is Paul George, who is likely to decline his player option for next season. Russell Westbrook and Mason Plumlee, two crucial bench pieces, are free agents as well. Given the Clippers' cap situation, keeping Harden and George appears to be the best course of action; after all, as disappointing as their end to the season was, this was still a team that won 51 games in the loaded Western Conference.

Kawhi Leonard, of course, will be the determining factor as to just how far the Clippers can go.