It is very evident to everyone involved in the NBA that James Harden does not want to play for the Houston Rockets anymore and all eyes are on him as the season gets fired up. In a latest episode Harden was caught on camera violating the Covid terms that NBA players are subjected to and he has to go through a mandatory 4 day quarantine (those keep getting shorter, don't they?) and will need to pass 4 consecutive Covid tests in order to qualify to play in their next game which is vs the Portland Trailblazers and is actually one of the better matchups (imo) that we are going to have in the next week.
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The "Wellness Policy" of the NBA currently dictates that players and staff are forbidden from attending indoor activities that have more than 15 people present. Harden, just like almost anyone else in the NBA isn't exactly known for his virtuous existence and was at a private party with 50 people or so including a ton of strippers. The heavily edited video of which the above image is a very innocent photo taken from it, also had a bunch of illegal drugs in it but people don't seem to be overly concerned about that aspect of it, nor do I think they should be. I just find it kind of amusing that these ultra-powerful people think they are so untouchable that they would be fine with someone filming all of that.
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Harden has been fined $50,000 by the NBA and if it hadn't been for the fact that the game against the OKC Thunder he would have had 1/72 of his salary docked and this is where things get really interesting. The game was supposedly going to be postponed anyway due to a number of players testing positive for Covid but had that game happened wanna take a guess at how much James would have had to forego from his salary?
$567,000
That's right folks, Mr Harden gets paid more for one game of basketball than a vast majority of the world's population makes is several years of office work.
Harden is kind of already on the Houston Rocket's "naughty list" after he refused to turn up to training camp on time due to ongoing disputes over his contract and how he no longer wishes to play for the Rockets. It remains to be seen if he is going to sandbag (not try very hard) as far as his on-court performance is concerned but I think that James, despite his arrogance in trying to force a trade by bad behavior knows better than to do this. Players with just as much talent as he has have been railroaded by the league by thinking they can violate the rules of their employers and seeing as how Mr. Harden probably quite enjoys being able to make over half a million dollars a week, I think he is going to give it his best during his games with the Rockets this year and suck it up until his contract expires after this season.
After all, there is no guarantee that whatever team becomes interested in him after this season is going to match what he is currently paid by Houston. James is definitely one of the best players in the league, but he also is no spring chicken as they say. 31 certainly isn't old, but in the NBA and most other professional sports, it is the beginning of what many teams consider to be a dangerous age and a turning point as far as talent is concerned.
On an overall note I think that the NBA is going to continue to see problems like this not just from James but from everyone in the league. You can't tell a bunch of arrogant millionaires that they are not allowed to go anywhere on their time off and expect them to actually do so. Combine this with the fact that the Covid tests are considered positive even if the results are actually inconclusive and I think we are going to see a lot of games postponed and / or cancelled this season.