The James Harden experiment in Brooklyn ended sooner than expected, and due to a combination of untimely injuries and Kyrie Irving’s vaccination stance, we’ll never know what the trio of Harden, Irving and Kevin Durant could have accomplished.
Leading up to the trade deadline, reports on what was going on inside the Nets organization indicated that there was still a belief the Nets’ Big Three could be unstoppable when together – but that potential didn’t appear to sway Harden.
On Saturday, before the Nets fell to the Miami Heat on the road, Kevin Durant said that trying to convince Harden to stay when he was unhappy would not have been productive.
Via ESPN:
“I think once a person gets to that decision of ‘I’m unhappy,’ I think he’s gone through a lot of steps to get there. So no matter what I say or try to convince someone — I’m not saying I did this, but this is just my theory on this — no matter what I say or do to try to convince someone to change their mood from being unhappy to happy, I think that’s when I’m pretty late to the party.”
Durant believes Harden doesn’t owe him or anyone else an explanation for wanting to leave, and that the team is ready to move on from the “noise.”
“He’s made his decision. I’m sure people make their decision before they get to that mode of being unhappy. I didn’t have any conversations with James up until then. I thought everything was solid. I don’t do any convincing. I’m sure you make those choices and decisions on your own as an individual. Me as a friend, I just have to accept it.”
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