BROOKLYN, NY — James Harden's first away game against the Brooklyn Nets following his trade to the Philadelphia 76ers was a success. The Sixers squeaked out a win when they should have won comfortably but they picked up the victory nonetheless. Harden had a very nice outing against his former squad.
Harden's brief time with the Nets was as dysfunctional and chaotic as it gets. Instead of bringing Brooklyn to new heights with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, the three stars barely played together at the same time, won a single playoff series and fell apart due to drama and injuries at every turn.
Harden looked to get out just a little over a year after wanting in. Now, over a year since the trade that sent him to the Sixers, Brooklyn is without Durant and Irving after more drama, a trade request from Irving just before the trade deadline and blockbuster trades that sent the two remaining stars west. When asked to sum up his time with Durant and Irving on the Nets, Harden landed on the word “frustrating.”
“It's a lot of what-ifs. I think we played less than 20 games together,” the Sixers star said. “So, just a little bit frustrating, but it is what it is. Hopefully, everybody's in a good place now and we can move on.”
The star trio played just 16 games together, winning 13 of them. After both Durant and Irving requested to be traded at different times since the Sixers acquired Harden, he looks vindicated in the decision to leave.
“Fast forward to today, I don't look like the crazy one,” Harden said. “I don’t look like the guy or the quitter or whatever the media want to call me…Whatever was going on [in Brooklyn] wasn't right.”
While the Sixers are far from the perfect team and still have to prove they can be real championship contenders, they offer a great situation for James Harden to thrive.
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