The James Harden situation has quickly devolved from mere selfishness to pure recklessness

Commerce calls for have been part of the NBA since … effectively, just about all the time.

Seen by means of the simple-if-simplistic lens, James Harden isn’t doing something totally different now than what Wilt Chamberlain did in Philadelphia, what Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did in Milwaukee, what Hakeem Olajuwon did in Houston, what Dwight Howard did in Orlando, what Kobe Bryant did in Los Angeles, what Carmelo Anthony did in Denver (and New York), what Anthony Davis did in New Orleans, et cetera, et cetera.

Then once more, what Harden’s doing actually isn’t the identical in any respect.

Oh, he’s actually not the primary athlete to make himself a ache within the rear finish to get what he needs. He’s hardly the one one so fed up together with his state of affairs that he’ll abandon all pretense of professionalism within the easy hope of carrying a entrance workplace’s endurance thinner than a supermodel.

He’s the primary one, nonetheless, to weaponize a pandemic to realize his goals.

I acknowledge “weaponize” is a loaded phrase right here. And I don’t use it frivolously. Take a second and take into consideration what Harden has achieved.

He skipped the beginning of coaching camp to make the purpose that he was prepared to make himself a nuisance — which, once more, is nothing uncommon in and of itself — however whereas doing so, he additionally made it some extent to very publicly attend a rapper’s birthday celebration, ignoring the league’s social distancing protocols and thereby additional delaying his entry into workforce actions on account of having to isolate and return nonetheless many destructive COVID-19 assessments had been required.

Doing that when was dangerous sufficient … however doing it twice?

On Dec. 21 — two days earlier than the Rockets’ season opener — Harden made the choice to attend a non-public, and reportedly very crowded indoor get together. He was not carrying a masks there.

In doing so, both Harden knew he’d get caught and put again within the league’s “well being and security protocol” program and need to isolate for a number of days once more and miss the sport, or he figured nobody would discover out and he’d return to interacting with teammates and coaches and staffers the following day, probably exposing them to no matter he’d been uncovered to on the get together.

If it’s the previous, effectively, that’s ridiculously egocentric. And if it’s the latter … effectively, that’s dangerously reckless.

In a manner, Harden bought fortunate — between him being out, one teammate being injured, two teammates testing constructive, and 4 extra held out on account of a gaggle haircut in public, the Rockets’ recreation in opposition to the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder wound up being postponed, as they didn’t have the league-minimum eight gamers out there. Because of this, he bought a $50,000 fantastic for violating protocols, however didn’t get the double-whammy of additionally shedding a ensuing recreation test, as a result of, effectively, the sport didn’t truly happen.

Simply take into consideration for a second, although: A constructive consequence for Harden on this state of affairs was the Rockets having to postpone their season opener. As a result of he was one in all simply a number of gamers on the identical workforce who couldn’t be bothered to comply with some fairly clearly outlined guidelines, to say nothing of straightforward widespread sense.

Within the aftermath of this case, some pundits have referred to as for the league to rethink a “mini-bubble” plan, the place groups from the identical area would assemble to sequester collectively and face off in opposition to each other, a la many smaller variations of the Orlando bubble. This, they argue, would clear up any ambiguity, not give gamers probabilities to make errors.

Besides that Harden isn’t making “errors.” He’s been very deliberate — in ignoring the principles, in addition to his teammates’ security.

And why? As a result of the Rockets are not contenders in his eyes? He’s the one who had them ship off Lou Williams, Pat Beverley and Montrezl Harrell for Chris Paul to take issues up a notch. He’s additionally the one who had the Rockets then ship off Paul for BFF Russell Westbrook when Paul’s depth grew tiresome. After which, shockingly, Westbrook didn’t work out, both, and was additionally gone.

Houston continuously made seismic modifications to its roster building to appease Harden, and now, with a number of years left on his contract, he needs out as a result of he doesn’t just like the route of the workforce? He’s the one who outlined that route. He’s additionally the one who’s continuously underperformed within the postseason in that stretch, however to confess that may require a degree of self-awareness he clearly doesn’t possess.

Nonetheless, fantastic — his degree of ignorance is fairly gorgeous, although hardly unprecedented. Which nonetheless doesn’t necessitate or justify this. I’m not even suggesting he suck it up, bide his time, and do one thing to earn his $41 million-plus wage. No, that may be foolish. Quite, there are nonetheless methods to make himself a ache, nonetheless methods to get his level throughout, nonetheless methods to try to power the Rockets’ hand that don’t require probably exposing himself and others to COVID-19.

Loads of prior commerce calls for through the years have been egocentric and inconsiderate. None, although, ever managed to strategy the rash, vicious potential of this one.

Harden will in all probability finally get what he needs. Hopefully nobody else has to pay for it.