Stephen A. Smith explains why Rockets fans should be upset with James Harden

Stephen A. Smith explains why Houston Rockets fans should be unhappy with Harden

On Wednesday morning’s episode of ESPN’s First Take, co-host Stephen A. Smith was discussing Harden’s homecoming to the Space City and explained why Houston Rockets fans should be unhappy with the 2017-18 MVP.

“He shows up, he’s not in shape. It clearly is on purpose, because he doesn’t want to be there.

Now that he’s gone, they are one of the worst teams in basketball. His exit has basically plummeted the entire franchise.

They are in basketball purgatory right now, and there’s no way around it. It’s just not a good situation right now, but that also has something to do with James Harden.

You wanted Dwight Howard and then you didn’t. You wanted Chris Paul and then you didn’t. You wanted to play with Russell Westbrook and then y’all didn’t wanna play with one another.

And along the way, they gave up assets. They don’t do that if it were not for James Harden.

Having to make a deal with Brooklyn and garner assets in return, because they had given them away in previous deals, just to get him the assets that he had asked for.

Those are the kind of things that people who know something about basketball in Houston may tend to hold against him. Because the state of affairs that exist now is primarily because they tried to give him everything he said he needed in order for them to elevate to another level.”

Next: The Rockets without Harden