James Harden has made it clear that he will not be a part of the 76ers organization this upcoming season. However, it seems his former teammate Dwight Howard wants him to leave the NBA entirely.
To catch everyone up as quickly as possible, basically James Harden requested a trade from the 76ers. President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey publicly declined to move Harden from the team, which ultimately caused Harden to release a video calling Morey “a liar.”
Now, what exactly happened to cause all of this is under speculation. Many people believe that because Harden took an unexpected pay cut last season, Morey had promised him a massive extension this offseason and then didn’t follow through with his word. This has actually happened in the NBA before. In the 90’s, the Timberwolves promised Joe Smith a huge contract in exchange for a one season pay cut. Of course, the following year, they dealt him squat. In return, the T-Wolves were handed the largest fine in league history.
Though no one really knows what will happen with Harden and the Sixers, Harden’s former teammate Dwight Howard has just offered him the deal of a lifetime.
Not only did Dwight suggest that Harden should team up with him in Taiwan, but he fully said he’d buy a team just for Harden to play on. In the caption of Howard’s Instagram post, the future Hall of Famer wrote “Aye James I’m about to buy a team, you can be the franchise player and a partner 🤷🏾♂️ forget 84 you gone score 100 😂.”
Considering Dwight averages 23.2 points per game in Taiwan compared to 6.2 in his final NBA season, Harden would average about 78.5 PPG in Taiwan compared to his average last season of 21 PPG. That’s his average. So yeah, he probably would drop 100 in a game pretty easily.
While I think everyone can agree that watching Harden dunk on 5’6 Taiwanese dudes would be entertaining, there is no chance that Harden takes this offer. Harden averaged 21-10.7-6 last season. Not only would he dominate Taiwan, he still dominates the NBA.
While Howard’s campaign will surely fail, you can’t fault the guy for trying. I’m sure Dwight is pretty lonely in Taiwan. Though he certainly gets noticed every second of every day, life in a foreign country must be hard without friends. Plus, his attempt was honestly pretty great. I mean, the clip of Harden dancing with that girl should be a viral meme at this point.
Anyway, I doubt Harden actually makes the trip to Taiwan. If he does somehow make the switch, expect him to wreck more havoc than Messi does in the MLS.
