“Don’t like them” – James Harden, Damian Lillard get CALLED OUT publicly by NBA commissioner Adam Silver for demanding trades to specific teams
Lillard and Harden's requests to be traded to specific teams has upset Adam Silver.
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Damian Lillard, Adam Silver and James Harden (Credits: Sports Illustrated and ESPN)
Damian Lillard of the Portland Trailblazers and James Harden of the Philadelphia 76ers have sparingly crossed paths throughout their careers. However, after the events of the last few months, it is easy to spot what has become common between them. Both no longer want to play for their current teams and both want to be traded to specific destinations. The NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, as it turns out, isn’t very happy with this.
Lillard has made it clear that after the 11 years he has given to the Trail Blazers, he wants to join a team that can compete for the NBA title. He wants to win a championship and the Blazers have made no moves to help him realize that goal. Lillard, therefore, wants to be moved to a team that he feels can help him win, specifically, last year’s beaten finalists, the Miami Heat.
Lillard’s insistence to be traded nowhere else has made it difficult to find a deal for him. Similarly, James Harden has publicly stated he will never play for a team that Daryl Morey, the President of Operations for the 76ers, is a part of. He has been adamant about going to the LA Clippers and is not considering any other options.
This type of stubbornness by these players is exactly what has made them attract Adam Silver’s ire. Silver has previously stated that while he feels player movement is generally positive, these type of team specific trade requests are something he dislikes.
He also says that he hopes both the teams and the players get what they want while honoring their contracts. Some fans seem to agree with Silver, saying that the players are doing ‘too much’ in an attempt to get traded. These fans feel that the NBA is better off without conflicts between the team and the organization. Others, however, say that these players are only demanding what is rightfully theirs.
Have players taken extreme measures to get traded?
This won’t be the first time James Harden has tried to get out of a team. During his time with the Houston Rockets, it was said that Harden wanted to be traded to another team. Even so, Houston’s management did not get a trade for him and it seemed like Harden was set to play with Rockets for the foreseeable future.
However, in his final games with the Rockets, Harden appeared to put on a massive amount of weight. This led to the management trading him to the Brooklyn Nets. In his first season with the Nets, all of Harden’s weight seemed to drop off. Fans speculated he was wearing a fat suit to get traded.
Fans were extremely upset by this behavior of Harden’s. They said that while demanding a trade is fine, pulling off these stunts to force your team’s hand is not. It is exactly these kinds of events Silver wishes to prevent since they can damage the league’s reputation. This ongoing saga of Harden and Dame hasn’t reached this stage yet, and hopefully, everything is sorted out before they have to resolve to these kinds of antics.
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