The 10-time All-Star has plenty of individual accolades but has never claimed an NBA championship. His latest contract decision is as unselfish as it is wise
When James Harden entered the NBA in 2009, the league’s highest-paid player, Kobe Bryant, made just over $23m a year. Now, there are 50 players making more than that sum, and the highest-paid among them, Steph Curry, will make a hair over $48m in 2022-23.
But when Harden declined his player-option of $47.3m next season to sign a new two-year contract (with a player-option in Year 2) worth $68.6m that will see him take a $14m discount next year, he became the first star player to take a pay cut of that magnitude in the modern history of the league. After all, this isn’t Dirk Nowitzki taking a team-friendly deal at 39-years-old or Kevin Durant, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh losing out on a couple million in the prime of their careers. Harden took a big pay cut with the aim of helping his Philadelphia 76ers build a championship contender around himself and co-star Joel Embiid, reportedly telling Sixers’ president of basketball operations Daryl Morey “to improve the roster, sign who we needed to sign and give me whatever is left over.”
