By now, everybody knows the James Harden story.
It has been reported on ad museum and been dissected from every which way throughout the past 24 hours. Heck, I even wrote a quick column covering a restaurant of his opening up in Houston. That is how far we have crawled down the rabbit hole on this Houston Rockets/Brooklyn Nets/James Harden debacle. He wanted out of Houston, forced a trade to Brooklyn and got his way after acting like a baby.
Great, wonderful. Depending on your viewpoint of him as a player or even the league as a whole, you can debate one way or another on if this thing is a net positive or a net negative. Here is what I do know though. Harden certainly ‘won’ here, even if his credibility and reputation took a huge hit. The Rockets as an organization ‘won’ because their star player was no longer a STAR and shipped him out of there for a good return. Even the league kinda ‘won’ here, as yet another super group was formed in Brooklyn. Despite this mess, one could argue there were a few “W’s” to hand out.
Except poor Landry Shamet. I am unsure he came out of this as any sort of winner. The Brooklyn Nets player and now teammate of James Harden has to give up his jersey number. Again! You see, he had to give up his number 23 in Philadelphia when Jimmy Butler joined the 76ers. Heck, Butler even claimed he didn’t give Shamet anything as a thanks to the kind gesture. Nothing? NOTHING? I hope he was kidding around.
Now here comes Harden to the Nets, and he wants his number 13. Of course, he does. Shamet is screwed over again.
Somebody pay my man…
