James Harden Opens Up About 'Frustrating' Nets Tenure with Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving

Philadelphia 76ers star guard James Harden revealed some of his frustrations from his short-lived time with the Brooklyn Nets in the wake of Kyrie Irving's trade to the Dallas Mavericks and Kevin Durant's trade to the Phoenix Suns this past week.

"Frustrating," he told reporters of their time together. "It's a lot of what ifs, I think when you play less than 20 games together. So it's a little bit frustrating, but it is what it is. Hopefully, everybody's in a good place now, and we can move on."

In January, Irving appeared to take a bit of a shot at Harden when talking about the difference with the Nets while Durant missed time this season, as opposed to the team's struggles last year in a similar situation.

"Well, I'm consistently in the lineup, that helps," Irving told reporters. "We also don't have anyone who is halfway in in the locker room."

The irony of those comments, of course, was Irving forcing a trade out of Brooklyn about two weeks later.

Meanwhile, Harden—who had forced a trade out of Brooklyn before last season's trade deadline, reportedly in part because of Irving's unreliability—seemed to return the favor by taking his own subtle jabs at Irving on Saturday.

"I don't look like the crazy one," he told reporters. "I don't look like the guy or the quitter or whatever the media wants to call me. I knew what was going on, and I just decided to... hey, I'm not built for this. I don't want to deal with that. I want to play basketball and have fun."

Irving, of course, missed significant time due to his unvaccinated status last season, as he wasn't permitted to play home games for a major chunk of the season due to New York City laws. Irving also took an unexpected and mysterious hiatus in the 2020-21 season, which began right before the Nets traded for Harden.

Despite the seeming dysfunction in the short-lived Durant-Irving-Harden era, The Beard said the Nets could have still potentially salvaged the situation.

"Yeah, there was a lot of things" he told reporters when asked if there was anything the Nets could have done to keep him. "But it was just a lot of dysfunction. Clearly... and that was one of the reasons why I chose to make my decision."

Harden found himself a raft and made his move before the ship sank, in other words.