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- James Harden wants out of Brooklyn but reportedly hasn’t made a formal trade request.
- Harden is too worried about the public backlash he could (will) receive if he asks for a trade.
- Be sure to check out more sports stories at BroBible here.
Everyone in Brooklyn, everyone in the five burrows of New York City, and every NBA fan in the country know that James Harden wants to leave the Nets. The rumors and trade speculation has been brewing for weeks and now that trade deadline day is here, everyone is seeing if a deal actually gets done.
The deal that’s been discussed to exhaustion involves Harden being shipped to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Ben Simmons and other pieces.
There is an interesting wrinkle in all of this, however, and that is Harden not formally putting in a trade request.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Harden hasn’t formally asked to be dealt “out of fear of the public backlash that would come with asking out of a second franchise in consecutive seasons.”
NBA Fans React To James Harden Not Formally Asking For A Trade
While Harden wants out of Brooklyn, the Nets don’t necessarily want to lose one of the premier scorers in the game. With him not putting in a formal trade request, the organization hasn’t “become engaged in serious dialogue on a deal.”
So, in summary, Harden hasn’t asked for a trade, but he’s letting the news get out there and essentially seeing if social media can push something across the line here.
Things will undoubtedly come down to the wire here with the NBA trade window officially closing at 3:00 PM EST on February 10.
NBA fans predictably roasted Harden for being too afraid to hand in a formal trade request:
which makes zero sense because if he informally requested a trade to avoid the ‘public backlash’ — the minute the report went public, the ‘backlash’ was going to follow.
plus, is it really a secret that Harden wants a trade? formally requested or not https://t.co/FvkKeUqtvc
— Ashley Nicole Moss (@AshNicoleMoss) February 10, 2022
I just don’t get it. You don’t want to be here so why not just say it like a man and let’s get this over with. You’re making the fans and this franchise suffer simply because you don’t want to bruise your ego. A few shopping trips with Lil Baby should help you recover James https://t.co/cZghQks7BD
— That Nets fan 🏀 (@NetsGuy15) February 10, 2022
Harden not formally asking for a trade because of the optics of it is comedy.
This coming from a guy who acted like a drama queen on his way out from Houston and doing the same thing in Brooklyn, but yeah let’s worry about how you look. https://t.co/51xJgkHcTf
— JNav (@jnavla) February 10, 2022
LOL. In other words, Harden hasn't formally requested a trade, but his representatives leaked it to Woj to broadcast on Twitter and national TV. https://t.co/n6RVM3YWzW
— Justin Kubatko (@jkubatko) February 10, 2022