There is no other place where a star who disobeyed, belittled and acted unprofessionally, gets in the end exactly what he wanted without paying a price for it • When everyone talks about NBA players as role models, the message from James Harden's story must not elude league fans
Harden.
Received his request
Photography:
USA TODAY Sports
Hear a segment.
After many years in the job, and after being given a free hand to decide how to build his team, the editor of one of the largest websites in Israel, which he cannon on, began arriving late for work in recent weeks.
After zoom calls.
Stopped answering emails.
Filter the boss on WhatsApp.
When asked where he was and whether he violated the corona guidelines, he lied and said that not when in practice he celebrated at underground parties of virus deniers.
And when he came to the system he treated people badly and whenever something went wrong he threw the responsibility on others.
About the team - which he himself built.
Then he wrote on Twitter that he was tired and that there was no way he was continuing this work.
Now, tell me you guys - what would you do with one like that?
If you were his managers, how would it end?
Here's an idea: you would arrange a job for him in the New York Times - exactly where he dreamed of going.
Right?
I mean, right?
Isn't it true that an employee who behaves like this does not really deserve such a happy ending?
And what if I told you he also gets $ 40 million a year, and still allows himself to act like that?
And also in the end getting exactly what he wanted?
Well, maybe now is the time to say that none of this is true and it's all an invention.
But if any of you read this and say to yourself "oh does it actually make sense for a senior employee who gets such a high salary to behave in such a disgraceful way, but in the end his bosses will still do exactly what he wants and get him a job elsewhere, more prestigious, exactly the job he aimed for" - So let me tell you something: you see too much NBA.
Because only in the best league in the world can such a thing happen.
More precisely - only in the NBA do such things happen.
And this week it happened again, when James Harden did all this stuff, and even worse, and yet in Houston executed a trade that moved him to the Brooklyn Nets.
There Harden will still earn those $ 40 million and a little over a year, will get to live in New York and play alongside Kevin Durant, with whom he wanted to reunite.
And maybe even alongside Kyrie Irving (if he decides he wants to play basketball).
We talk a lot about the positive impact NBA players have on young people, about how they lead communities and lead important social positions.
And it is clear that there are positive things, also on a social level, in the "player empowerment" movement that the NBA is leading.
And that is exactly why the Harden case should not be allowed to pass without reference here as well to what it symbolizes.
What it teaches.
What a message it conveys.
So, in order for youngsters who follow the league (some of them are future players in the league) to learn from it the morals of common sense, we should all hope that this connection of Harden to Durant and Kyrie, under an inexperienced coach (Steve Nash), just explodes in everyone's face.
I'm already holding fingers.