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Houston Rockets announcer shouts “WHO NEEDS JAMES HARDEN!?” while James Harden is standing right there in front of him
Carmen Mandato
Things are getting messy down in Houston. Russell Westbrook is gone. John Wall is in. James Harden wants out, and the Rockets would just as soon show him the door if anybody wanted him, but they don’t. So that leaves the franchise, one of the best in the West the past several years, paying a superstar who not only doesn’t want to be there, but, by most accounts, wasn’t really pulling his weight even when he did. Needless to say, the situation is going to get worse before it gets better and the Rockets broadcast crew isn’t helping matters, celebrating a routine layup on Thursday night by shouting “WHO NEEDS JAMES HARDEN!?” at the top of their lungs while James Harden was standing right there. Awkwardddddd.
OK, so a couple things. First of all, to answer the question, a lot of teams could use James Harden, including the Rockets. Yes, he needs to get his sh*t together, show up on time for meetings, maybe stop expanding like Tim Allen in the feature-length family picture ‘The Santa Clause,’ but he is still a borderline top-10 player in the NBA and easily the best Houston has barring a high-profile swap. Second of all, Christian Wood making a left-handed layup in a preseason game against a rebuilding Spurs team shouldn't be the reason Houston ships Harden to Minnesota for a bag of peanuts. Harden has burned some bridges to be sure, but if you’re in Houston, you gotta pump those breaks a bit.
That said, this took an admirable level of DGAF. Either this play-by-play guy knows something we don’t, and figures he won’t have to deal with Harden much past Christmas, or he just doesn’t care. Either way, it’s a juicy little aperitif for the NBA drama to come this season and a timely reminder to suffer no fools this holiday season. MOM IS THERE WITH THE CRANBERRY SAUCE TO LAY IT IN—WHO NEEDS RACIST UNCLE STEVE!?