James Harden is ruffling feathers in Philadelphia and all over the NBA. The Beard has recently been dealt to the Los Angeles Clippers, and his handling of the situation did not sit well with people, including former Dallas Mavericks executive Brian Dameris among those people.
Dameris, now working as a Mavs TV studio analyst, ravaged Harden with a near-two-minute “speech.” This happened before the Clippers-Mavericks In-Season tournament game.
“Listen, James, have you ever had those friends who had bad roommates? Over and over they complained about their bad roommates: “This guy’s terrible,” “The bad roommate here,” they never thought to be self-aware enough that THEY’RE the bad roommate! They’re the problem!
Hey James, YOU’RE THE PROBLEM! If this doesn’t work this year, in this system, with this team, then you’re gonna go and point fingers at everybody else, and then you’re gonna go back home, and you’re gonna start swiping right for another team, and there’s not gonna be anyone left. Because James, you’re not the beard, you’re not the system, you’re the problem.
Brian Damaris Criticizes James Harden
That was coming from a place of wisdom and anger. At least Dameris did not yell and be obnoxious like other channels’ sports shows.
Is Brian Dameris Right?
There’s no way of knowing if Harden put pressure on his previous team, the Houston Rockets, to secure the services of guys like Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, and Russell Westbrook. However, it’s reported by ESPN’s Tim McMahon that The Beard would ask for days off to party in Las Vegas.
But if only Harden had shown up during crucial games, partying in Vegas would have been the least of a team’s worries. As Dameris noted, Harden scored nine points on 3-for-11 shooting in Game 7 vs. the Boston Celtics in the 2023 playoffs. On top of that, he publicly said he wanted to have freer reins in Philly.
It’s too early to say if the James Harden experiment in Los Angeles will blow up in the Clippers’ faces. So far, the team has lost three straight with Harden, including a 144-116 defeat against the Mavs.
That said, if Harden fails to show up when needed and stirs the pot along the way, he may be looking at minimum contracts from thereon out. Worse, NBA teams could decide he’s no longer worth the trouble.
As mentioned, he’s not doing himself any favors with how he handles things. Chris Broussard, although wrong, called him the “R” word after the trade. Nobody can understand what he’s up to, and that’s certainly not a good thing.