“If this doesn’t work with this team and with this system you’ll have to go and point to whoever you want, that you’ll go home and look for another team, but there won’t be anyone left because James, you’re not ‘The Beard’, you’re not the system, you’re the problem.” This speech by journalist Brian Dameris criticising James Harden‘s egocentrism has gone viral now after the Clippers point guard’s bombshell trade to the Cavaliers, but it is from 2023, when he was traded from the Sixers to the Clippers in 2023.
The fact is that this Dallas analyst, Emmy Award winner, is now in the spotlight. It was surely the most scathing criticism ‘The Beard’ has received throughout his career and, as if it were ‘Groundhog Day’, that wonderful film in which the character played by Bill Murray lives the same events day after day, it can be applied to Harden.
A race of egocentrism and disloyalty
A career marked by egocentrism and disloyalty, which has led him to choose players/friends until he got tired of them, to demand the heads of coaches to bring in those he liked, to change the routines of the teams he played for to satisfy his personal desires off the court and, when nothing worked and he got tired of all that, he asked for the transfer. In Spain, this could be interpreted with the classic “ahi os quedais”, or “there you stay”.
Brian Dameris accused him of all these practices, of his lack of altruism, his constant whims and his disloyalty to teammates and coaches, which in his opinion have led him to fail in all the projects in which he has been involved in his career. From the Thunder (2009-12), to the Rockets (2012-21), Nets (2021-22), Sixers (2002-23) and Clippers (2023-26). And it could be applied now to the Cavaliers if he does not change his nefarious ‘modus operandi’.
You wanted to go to Las Vegas on your days off and have a night out with your teams… That didn’t work out and you were attracted by the bright lights of New York, you wanted to go there with your little friend Kevin Durant… and after a year you wanted to leave
In just two absolutely unmissable minutes, this award-winning Dallas journalist tried to unmask the deficits and whims that have plagued Harden’s 17-year career. “You wanted another coach and they brought you Mike D’Antony, they took you to players you wanted like Dwight Howard, Chris Paul or your friend Russell Westbrook… You wanted to go to Las Vegas on your days off and spend the night with your teams to party…”
Blaming others
“That didn’t work, it wasn’t enough, and then you were attracted by the lights of New York, you wanted to go there with your little friend Kevin Durant. That ‘Big Three’… and after a year you wanted to leave. You went back to Darryl Morey and he traded Ben Simmons for you, but then you complained that they didn’t give you the reins, but you were the point guard, you had the reins, and what did you do?… 9 points in game seven against the Celtics.”
You complained that you weren’t given the reins, but you were the point guard, you were in charge, and what did you do?… 9 points in Game 7 against the Celtics
And he ruthlessly criticizes Harden for always blaming his failures on his teammates, something very ugly besides being false: “You always thought you had bad teammates who were the problem, Hey James, you’re the problem,” Dameris accused him when he was traded from the Sixers to the Clippers in 2023. Surely all these arguments have not lost their validity. Time will tell.
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