Bradley Beal says he was almost traded for James Harden in 2012

“They were going to trade up to get me, and trade James [Harden] to Washington for me,” Beal says of the Thunder. “It was almost done.”

In a new podcast, Washington Wizards star Bradley Beal says he was almost traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder on the night of the 2012 NBA Draft in a deal involving James Harden.

Harden (34.4) and Beal (30.5) are the only NBA players averaging more than 30 points per game in the current 2019-20 season.

The connection the Rockets, of course, is that had the Thunder had traded Harden to Washington in June 2012, he never would’ve been traded to Houston four months later. Here’s how it almost went down on draft night according to Beal, who told the story to former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on the All the Smoke podcast:

We’re sitting in the draft room, sure enough, my agent is tapping me. He’s like, ‘It’s possible you might go to OKC.’ They were going to trade up to get me, trade James to Washington for me. I would have been in OKC with KD [Durant] and Russ [Westbrook]. … That was a last-minute decision. It was almost done.”

Ultimately, Washington kept its pick and selected Beal at No. 3 overall.

Later that year, Michael Lee reported in The Washington Post that the deal fell apart because Wizards ownership was unwilling to commit to giving Harden a maximum contract at the time.

(The small-market Thunder also balked at offering Harden that contract, since they already had a pair of max-salaried players in Westbrook and Durant. That’s why Harden was on the trade block, even though Oklahoma City had won the Western Conference in the prior season.)

The Rockets didn’t have a blue-chip prospect at the time of comparable value to the No. 3 overall pick, so it was extremely unlikely that Houston GM Daryl Morey could have matched Washington’s proposal.

Fortunately for the Rockets, the Wizards balked at the financial price, and Oklahoma City’s asking price and leverage in trade talks dropped as the months progressed. Morey was able to convince then-owner Les Alexander that Harden was worthy of a max contract, despite his limited track record as a sixth man in Oklahoma City, and the rest is history.

Ultimately, Houston acquired “The Beard” for Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, two future first-round picks, and a future second-round selection.

After not making the playoffs in any of the three previous seasons, the Rockets have not missed the postseason a single time in all eight of Harden’s seasons in Houston. He’s also eight-for-eight in All-Star appearances, a three-time NBA scoring champion, and the 2017-18 MVP. (Harden finished second in MVP voting on three other occasions, too.)

Yet according to Beal, the ongoing Harden era in Houston came very close to not happening at all. The complete podcast conversation featuring Beal, Barnes, and Jackson can be viewed below.

[lawrence-related id=30517,29802]