It's no secret that James Harden's relationship with his ex-Brooklyn Nets teammates played a key role in his decision to force a move to the Sixers. Much has been made about how Harden's relationship with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving deteriorated over the past few months and how this resulted in Harden eventually jumping ship.
Over the past few years, Harden has earned a reputation for being a bad teammate. You have to remember that before joining the Nets, he also forced his way out of the Houston Rockets and the way he conducted himself in the final few weeks of his tenure with the squad likely didn't bring a lot of joy to his now-former Rockets teammates.
For his part, however, Harden firmly believes that this portrayal is unwarranted:
“I don't know why,” Harden responded when asked why he believes he's earned the reputation of being a bad teammate, via Brian Hall of the Associated Press. “That's for the media. The media say that. I feel like I'm one of the best teammates that the NBA's seen, on the court and off the court.”
Not only did he disagree with the notion, but Harden has even come out to say that in his mind, he's one of the greatest teammates in the history of the league. That's quite a bold claim, to say the least.
“Just because the current situation happened, whatever happened, happened,” Harden continued. “It doesn't mean that I'm a bad teammate. Me, personally, I feel like I needed to do what's best for my career, and help myself and be happy. It doesn't harp on whether I'm a bad teammate or not.”
Fair point from Harden here, though. Forcing his way out of his former teams doesn't necessarily make him a bad teammate. It says a lot about his loyalty, but it doesn't mean that his decision to turn his back on his squad automatically destroys his relationships with his former teammates. For all we know, they could have been fully supportive of his decision.
What we can say for sure, however, is that Harden is now loving life with the Sixers. He seems to be getting along really well with Embiid in Philly, and at this very early point in his career with his new team, I guess we can say that he's been a really good teammate.
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