WILL HARDEN REFER TO BALLMER AS A LIAR? HOW DESPERATE ARE CLIPPERS?
Hopeless to sell seats in a new arena, the owner is pleading with Harden not to destroy his fourth NBA franchise since 2021, quite possible with Leonard, George, Westbrook … and, yes, load management
If you need facilities in his new arena, Steve Ballmer has twice as many toilets as other NBA outhouses. “Toilets, 1,160 toilets and urinals!” he shouted, preferring fans return to their “damned seats.” Near the end of the court where visiting teams sit, he’ll have 51 uninterrupted rows of seats, room for almost 5,000 bodies.
“They’ve all led us here, to this vacant lot that we’re about to transform into the singular best place for fans and players throughout the world,” said the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, referring to a batch of land near an auto repair shop, a candle store and a liquor warehouse by the airport.
From a 360-degree halo board and power jacks beside every seat at the Intuit Dome, which he describes as a “mecca” and a “palazzo,” Ballmer is begging one new player not to insult him this season. He does not want James Harden to call him “a liar.” Believe it or not, a bossman who dies in his seat at every game is so hard up for a savior that he’s ignoring empowerment laws in America. Never, ever does an employee refer to a team president as “a liar … and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of.” But that’s what Harden did to Daryl Morey, who summoned him to Philadelphia to restore a glorious past and saw him destroy a third professional team in just 28 months.
There is no need to compare him to any other athlete in another sport. Harden is the badass sorryass of all time, who demanded another trade, blew off another franchise and was served what he demanded. Here comes Ballmer nonetheless, pleading with him not to botch his final season at Crypto.com Arena. One of the richest and most underserved owners in American sports, he’ll somehow ignore the irrationality of the 76ers, Brooklyn Nets and Houston Rockets while hoping Harden helps Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Russell Westbrook to postseason prosperity. It will be the only way the Clippers, forever nonessential to the Lakers, transport new people to a $2 billion arena by the 405 freeway, down the street from where the Rams and Chargers try to lure fans at SoFi Stadium.
Otherwise, Harden may chase the stragglers away forever. You know the deal: He shows up, smiles, makes practices, plays better, stays away from strip clubs and thanks Ballmer for gathering with Sixers owner Josh Harris and making the deal. Then, when something goes wrong, he instantly wants out — and he’s an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, meaning a quick playoff departure scares him to a FIFTH team, assuming anyone shy of Turkey wants him. Can you believe he was a future Hall of Famer who won MVP honors and nearly led the Rockets past Golden State? These days, Harden is poisoning himself out of Springfield.
“Ecstatic,” he told ESPN on Tuesday before showing up for a physical at the arena, then singing along with “You Dropped A Bomb On Me” as he entered the locker room. He kidded with Westbrook, whose locker is across the way, and sat with George. All the new teammates laughed it up. Just the same, he also was warm in greeting Ballmer, who said he was “waiting for hours” and told Harden and fellow newcomer P.J. Tucker to “go get tested and welcome aboard.”
The media? Don’t expect much. “You don’t understand,” Harden told an Orange County Register reporter.
Just wait until the one-basketball-per-possession haunts him out of town. As it is, Leonard and George finally are “healthy” again after seasons of abusing the NBA’s “load management” rest dawdlings. Now, Harden inevitably will want the rock instead of feeding it while taking care of a progressively managed Westbrook, who has played well since his downer saga with the Lakers. When the Clippers always have fallen short since 2019, leaving Ballmer crestfallen behind a basket, why would Harden appear in 2023 and make things better? An owner, a president, a teammate or two or three — who hasn’t he fought with?
Can Tyronn Lue somehow coax them to play together, at times, and not return to the “load management” bin? How are egos served? How is health maintained? Won’t Leonard and George look for new teams net summer? Morey was the one who wanted Harden to merge with Joel Embiid and reach the NBA Finals. Last year, in the Eastern Conference semis, Harden exploded for 45 points in Game 1 and scored nine points — 3 of 11 shots — in a Game 7 blowout loss to Boston.
Instead of staying out of trouble and fixing his game at 34, Harden demanded a trade with a harsh assault of Morey, his former friend. He apparently wanted a long-term monster deal in Philadelphia, and would you have given it to him? He’s the one who thinks he’s a premier player when no one agrees. Thus, Morey must convince Embiid that he can win with a gifted Tyrese Maxey and bigger pieces to come — though Embiid lost patience long ago. He said last summer: “I just want to win a championship. Whatever it takes. I don't know where that's gonna be, whether it's in Philadelphia or anywhere else, I just want to have a chance to accomplish that.” How does he feel now as the Sixers fall behind Boston and Milwaukee in the East? Will Morey now pursue Zach LaVine, while Embiid pays a $35,000 fine for making WWE-style crude chops?
The new coach, Nick Nurse, said he received a phone call in the dead of night. “I did, and I slept through it,” he said. “But I did get up a couple of hours later and came into the office. I’m not sitting here thinking it’s a big relief. These guys are focused. Other than spending a few minutes a day answering questions about it, or having a few meetings maybe that I wouldn’t have about it, it really wasn’t that cumbersome or bothersome or taxing for me.”
One sportsbook says the Clippers now rank third in the West, behind Denver and Phoenix. Let’s wait a few weeks for a revised look-see. When Harden makes his way to the bench for whatever reason, the NBA must resume an investigation into his absence and whether it violates a new player participation policy. When he left the Sixers, the league said it would “determine whether an approved reason exists for his lack of participation.” There was no approved reason — and a rep should be watching the Clippers at all times, as they will join others in oneupping the rule. For now, assuming Leonard and George are well after a Tuesday game against Orlando, both will play Wednesday night according to Lue … against the Lakers, in the latest battle for the arena walkway.
The best course James Harden can take, now that he’s home in L.A., is get a snazzier start for what might be the end of his career. We’ve seen his Beard for so long, why not see what’s been going on under it? What does he have to lose? His boss should let him try one of the new urinals.
The strippers wouldn’t mind, either.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.