USA TODAY Sports
Now that the doomed Brooklyn Nets superteam has been fully dismantled, James Harden, a key part of that mythical but short-lived unit, is glad he no longer looks like “the crazy one.” The star guard requested a trade away from Brooklyn almost exactly a year ago, the end to a “Big Three” union with superstars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving that was supposed to dominate the league but only ended up playing 16 games together. And now that Durant and Irving have been dealt out of Brooklyn—fully shutting the door on a Nets superteam that never was—Harden has thoughts. “I don’t look like the crazy one. I don’t look like the guy or the quitter or whatever the media want to call me,” he said after his Philadelphia 76ers defeated the Nets on Saturday night in Brooklyn. “I knew what was going on and I just decided… Hey, I’m not built for this. I don’t want to deal with that. I want to play basketball and have fun.” Harden wouldn’t elaborate on the chaos within the Brooklyn squad, but added: “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."