James Harden is 33 years old.
You should know by now that nothing will stop him from hitting the club after a game. It doesn’t matter if he puts up a 50 point triple down or shoots 3-17.
Last Thursday night was no different.
Facing the Nets for the first time since being traded for Ben Simmons last month, Sixers All-Star James Harden couldn’t buy a shot Thursday night, finishing just 3-of-17 from the floor in a losing effort. The letdown made Harden an instant punchline on social media, with fans trolling the former MVP for no-showing against his former team. Unfazed by his poor performance (though he did pass Reggie Miller for third on the NBA’s all-time three-point list), Harden was seen out on the town Thursday night, hitting the Philly club scene with rappers Travis Scott and Lil Baby.
In the hierarchy of off-field missteps, celebrating a buddy’s birthday with cake and sparklers is, admittedly, a pretty minor offense. However, the poor optics of Harden enjoying Philly’s nightlife—while making little effort to shield himself from the buzzing camera phones in his vicinity—hours after a humiliating defeat on national television, had many scratching their heads.
Harden did take responsibility after the game for his poor performance.
After the game, James Harden said, “I gotta be better individually. Some turnovers were just careless. Individually I gotta be better. As a team, we’ll watch film and see where we can be better. We’ll just continue to improve, this is only our 6th game together as a unit. I’m still trying to figure things out. But tonight was good for us. We got our ass kicked. Since I’ve been here everything has been sweet, tonight was good for us to come down to reality.”
Some Sixers fans were concerned that the loss didn’t bother Harden that much, while other fans said it is just a regular-season game, so there is no need to make it into a more significant issue.
Which side do you fall on?
Flip the pages for the party video and Sixers fans calling out The Beard.