Nets’ James Harden on Thunder Fans Still Booing Him: ‘It Wasn’t My Fault’

AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

Fans in Oklahoma City are apparently still bitter about James Harden’s 2012 departure, booing him throughout the Brooklyn Nets’ game against the Thunder on Sunday.

Harden just doesn’t understand why.

To be fair to Harden, he is 100 percent correct. His departure from Houston may have landed all on him, but leaving Oklahoma City was an action entirely of the organization.

The story has been discussed ad nauseam at this point, but it bears repeating. Rather than pay a luxury-tax bill, the Thunder chose to jettison a budding Harden from a team that was coming off an NBA Finals berth. The haggling came down to just $4.5 million. It’s a situation where the fault lies 100 percent with the management and not at all with the player, who proved himself every bit capable of being a max player with the Rockets.

That said, the word fan comes from the word fanatical, not the word rational. These lingering feelings tend to happen, even in situations like this.