I keep going back to something James Harden said in the playoffs. At the time, it felt like a little tip to where his head was. That sense has only grown since.
This was after the Sixers had wrapped up their sweep of the Nets with a Game 4 victory in Brooklyn. I forget the exact question Harden was asked, but here is how he answered:
“I told myself this year I’m all big on sacrifice, whether it’s the money, my role, just letting everything go and sacrificing and see what it gives me,” he said. “So throughout the entire year, people expect me to be the scoring James Harden, the James Harden that goes out there, gets 40, 50 points, and people talk, ‘Oh, they can’t win like that.’ And then it’s like, well, I go out there and get 20 points and 11 assists, and it’s like, ‘Well, he’s not the old James Harden anymore.’”
