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James Harden Takes Shot At Kevin Durant, While Denying To Be The ‘Quitter’

Last season, James Harden wanted to put himself in the best possible situation, and he saw the writing on the wall when the Brooklyn Nets hit a rough patch while the Philadelphia 76ers, who were playing much better, were looking to trade Ben Simmons. 

He eventually voiced out his frustrations with the team and ended up shipped to the Sixers in exchange for Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond and two first-round draft picks.

James Harden and Kyrie Irving haven’t said much publicly regarding their relationship and situation as teammates in Brooklyn since, but it appeared that the two players didn’t have much of a fruitful connection at all based off reports, that suggested that Harden had grown frustrated with Irving’s part-time status with the Nets. 

But were there even more problems with the Nets’ other superstar?

During an interview with Yaron Weitzman of FOX Sports, Harden now addressed his departure from Brooklyn, and took a slight shot at Kevin Durant. In the interview, Harden destroyed the narrative that he simply “quit” on the Nets, while suggesting that it was a different Brooklyn star who actually gave up on the team, namely Kevin Durant.

“I just feel like, internally, things weren’t what I expected when I was trying to get traded there. I think everybody knows that. And I knew people were going to talk and say, ‘You quit’ and all that stuff, but then the following summer, the other superstar there [Durant] wanted to leave. So it’s like: Am I still the quitter?”

“The whole two years was a low point. I’ve never really had to deal with something like that.”

For @FOXSports, I spoke with James Harden—and others close to him—about these low points, elimination game struggles, playing with Joel Embiid and more: https://t.co/cgzNgEStsh

— Yaron Weitzman (@YaronWeitzman) December 16, 2022