Kyrie and Harden Drama is Dominating Headlines
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In recent years, the NBA has been filled to the brim with drama. Whether it’s players wanting to be traded or teams trading their franchise guy, drama has been a huge part of the NBA in the past five years or so. Well, this year is no different.
There are two major storylines ravaging the NBA right now in terms of player drama - James Harden and Kyrie Irving. Now obviously the league has much bigger issues at hand with COVID-19 causing the postponement of seven games now, but these problems with the players are still problems nonetheless.
The James Harden Saga
First and foremost is the issue regarding Houston Rockets superstar James Harden. It has been a known thing since the offseason that Harden is unhappy with his situation in Houston. His running mate from last year, Russell Westbrook, was already dealt to the Wizards before the season started, but that left Harden alone with the team. There was a ton of speculation as to whether or not he would be dealt by the time the season started, but alas, he remains on the team up to this point.
Over the course of the season, there have been rumors of Harden expanding his “trade wishlist”, with the current teams being the 76ers, Nets, Trailblazers, and Celtics among others. The Rockets have an extremely high asking price for Harden, which makes sense for a talent of his caliber, but Harden’s personal actions continue to make it hard for the team to trade him.
Harden has been spotted at various strip clubs, and while this has always been his M.O., attending these large gatherings without a mask is a direct violation of league policy nowadays. He is seemingly always disobeying the team and not communicating with the staff. To make matters worse, he seems to be in the worst shape of his career, with commentators and analysts taking note of this during actual games. His stats have been decent, still, but it is evident that he’s not trying as hard as he could be.
The most recent news in this saga came in recent days when Harden reportedly told his team publicly that they “just aren’t good enough.” I mean, if a normal player came into the locker room and said that to his team, he’d be hated by everyone. While this may be true for Harden and his teammates, a player who plays at the level of Harden can’t just be traded overnight. Back when Eric Bledsoe got dealt because of his tweet, he was moved in just a couple of weeks. Well in order to get back what they feel they can, it might take a little while longer than that to move Harden. I guess it’s just a matter of time at this point, though.
The Kyrie Irving Beef with the Nets
This is a very weird storyline but in some ways similar to the Harden drama. At the start of the season, everything seemed fine with Irving in Brooklyn. He and Kevin Durant were playing great basketball and the team won their first couple of games. It was a bit odd that Coach Steve Nash was exclusively playing them on the court together, but regardless the team was playing well.
However, this all became an issue when Durant was forced to sit out for around a week due to COVID-19 protocols. As soon as it was announced he would be out, it was also announced that Irving would be out as well, but not for the same reasons. People were immediately suspicious as to why he was listed as out, but things got even weirder when his so-called reasoning was released. When asked why he was sitting out, Irving reportedly “didn’t feel like playing.”
If this were most players, they would be cut, traded, or benched for the foreseeable future for pulling a stunt like this. However, since Irving is as talented as he is, he can get away with things other players may not be able to. What made matters worse, however, was when Irving was spotted at an outing with family and others with no mask on. This was during the period of time when he “just didn’t feel like playing” and now his relationship with the team is supposedly in jeopardy. In statements made in recent days, the team is “fed up” with Irving, and patience is running thin. Nick Wright even tweeted out today that Brooklyn is willing to give up anyone in a Harden trade aside from Durant, which includes the idea of trading Irving himself.
The whole NBA world is enthralled with these two issues and dying to see how they turn out. Whether or not the two will be traded for each other is left to be seen, but something has to budge on both fronts. It’s just a matter of time at this point.
