James Harden Will Be Unselfish To Win A Title

A lot of the narrative surrounding James Harden and his career is that he is a very selfish player and a “ball-hog” type player. Yes, Harden is a very ball-dominant player and has one of the top usage rates in the league in terms of production for his team, but at the end of the day, he is a very good passer and facilitator on the floor for his team. 

James Harden is a 3x Scoring Champion and a former league MVP, but people tend to forget he led the league in assists during the 2016-17 NBA season. In fact, Harden has averaged more than 7.5 assists the last three seasons in Houston and was averaging 10.4 assists per game with the Rockets before being traded, a team he said could not win! He was passing the ball to guys he classified as non-winners!

As mentioned earlier, Harden had a fantastic debut with the Nets, recording a triple-double, but the most fascinating thing about his performance was the fact that he had 14 assists. Kyrie Irving was out and did not play that day, but that is besides the fact because his first performance proved that he is willing to do what it takes to win and he is willing to change his role. 

When asked about what kind of player the Nets were getting in Harden during his introductory press conference, Harden responded by saying, “An elite player, an elite teammate, an elite leader and guy that’s willing to do whatever it takes to rack up as many wins as we can – sacrifice.”

That right there should say everything you need to know about James Harden moving forward. The guy is willing to sacrifice personal achievement for the better of the team, something we have not heard from Harden over the years. He truly wants to win in Brooklyn with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving not just for his own personal gain of finally winning a title, but to prove to everyone around the league and who watches the NBA that he can change and do so to win. 

This is Kevin Durant’s team… there is no question about that. That does not mean though that James Harden and Kyrie Irving will not be as successful as they have been over the years. All three guys will have to be the dominant All-Star players they have been over the years in order to win a championship and if they are all willing to take a small step back personally, then there is no reason why the Brooklyn Nets cannot win numerous titles over the next few years.