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James Harden didn’t exactly get off to a hot start with the Clippers this season, and plenty of people were more than happy to use his struggles as an excuse to criticize the guard. That includes Mavericks broadcaster Brian Dameris, who appeared to be at the receiving end of some shade now that Harden has bounced back.
The fact that James Harden has played for four teams in the past three years makes it somewhat easy to position him as the primary source of friction for the franchises who’ve had to cater to his demands, but the Los Angeles Clippers were still willing to take a chance on him after his time with the 76ers came to a fairly ugly end.
However, the team struggled to get things clicking after acquiring the 10-time All-Star. It lost the first five games he appeared in, and midway through that slump, the aforementioned Mavericks announcer went viral after delivering a pretty scorching indictment of Harden’s career while labeling him “The Problem.”
Well, he may have spoken a bit too soon.
The Clippers have gone 13-2 since the start of December (a stretch that included a nine-game winning streak), and the team—which is currently 21-12 and sitting in the fourth spot in the Western Conference—has gotten some key contributions from Harden, who has averaged 17.7 points and 8.1 assists per game.
The veteran posted a double-double while contributing 22 points and 11 assists to the cause in his squad’s 131-122 win over the Suns on Wednesday night, and after the contest, he decided to take a bit of a victory lap by noting many of the people who were eager to rip into him a couple of months ago are “nowhere to be found.”
James Harden on his fit with the Clippers:
“Obviously it didn’t start off well. It gave people so much to talk about in a negative way. And now those people that was talking, they’re nowhere to be found. Like literally nowhere to be found.” pic.twitter.com/4JXAWkG85S
— Joey Linn (@joeylinn_) January 4, 2024
While he didn’t mention Dameris by name, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out he was the primary target there, and while recent history has taught us there’s always a chance Harden’s ego will become an issue, it’s hard to blame him for clapping back now that things are going pretty well.