Harden Rejects Historic Contract Extension from Houston Rockets

2017-18 MVP shooting guard James Harden could’ve become the first-ever NBA player to earn $50 M a year. Instead, he rejected the legendary offer and is looking to take his talents elsewhere. The offer he declined was worth $103 M over two years.

According to ESPN, the All-NBA guard wants to move to Brooklyn and play for the Nets. It’s also something they claim he hasn’t been silent about and already has talked to ownership about it. So what’s in Brooklyn that Harden wants? A chance to win his first NBA Championship. He believes that with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving that he can get the monkey off his back and add to his NBA resume.

The Eastern conference is also weaker than the West and doesn’t have LeBron James running the conference anymore. If he opts out of his contract the earliest Harden can become a free agent would be 2022. The Rockets really can’t be all the blame for Harden’s woe.

Remember Chris Paul was brought in during the 2018-19 season but got injured against the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals. For the 2019-20 season, Russell Westbrook was traded to the team, but as you can see that went worse for the Rockets as they couldn’t even reach the Western Conference Finals again.