Lmao...
The Nets were in Cleveland Jan. 17. In their locker room before the game, Kyrie Irving lit ablaze some sage — a Native American ritual Irving has embraced in order to cleanse negative energy. Irving doesn’t do this before every game, but he apparently still feels haunted by parts of his past on the Cavs. So he lit his torch.
Harden, according to sources who were in the room when it happened, was seated in front of his locker, watching Irving, and looked at Kyrie like he had three heads.
“Definitely a weird vibe between them,” one source said. “You could tell Harden was annoyed, and Kyrie wasn’t feeling James.”
The Nets were built with the idea that the Big 3 would carry them. Harden knew it. He’s seen Durant miss large amounts of time due to injury the past two seasons, and now, Irving won’t take the same shot Harden took to be eligible to play home games. Durant and Irving have what Harden, 32, does not: a title.
Harden has said publicly he was frustrated the Nets weren’t playing better. He saw how much the Nets need Irving on the court, all the time, and did the math on how nuts that would be to play home playoff games without Irving, even though Irving isn’t hurt.
“I’mma give him the shot,” Harden once joked of Irving. Now that seems like less of a joke.
The Nets were 13-3 when Durant, Harden, and Irving played in the same game, so this next argument is a little harder to make. But Harden’s ball-dominant, initiate-and-shoot style is not a great fit for Irving. Kyrie moved off of his point guard spot when the Nets traded for Harden last season. With Simmons, Irving can remain off the ball, but he knows the ball will come to him more often because Simmons won’t be pounding out the shot clock and looking for 3s.
Irving was ready for Harden to move on, too. When Irving heard Harden was in fact hoping to be traded, a well-placed source says he was eager to see it come to fruition
