Pay Me Sucka!

On Saturday night, if you are a sports fan, you were probably doing one of two things. Watching Notre Dame roll over Oklahoma or dressed in some weird sports costume heading to a party at a friends place. Either way you were blindsided midway through the night about the news of a big NBA trade.

Trades in the NBA aren't all that common, they mostly happen when teams need to dump salary (see Knicks, New York) or a player is unhappy in his situation and demands out (see Howard, Dwight). This trade happened because the player was due a big contract extension and his current team wasn't going to pony up the cash.

James Harden of Oklahoma City Thunder has been a very visible star for the NBA the last couple of seasons. A high draft pick, playing on a winning team and his tell tale beard all made him quite the personality. His biggest contribution is probably the consistency that the Thunder get when the bring him off the bench. He was named the 6th man of the year last year because of the scoring (avr 16.8 ppg) he provides when his teammates might not have it that night. Even though many considered him the third best player on the Thunder, he was content, or so we thought, with coming off the bench.

Harden was entering the fourth year of his rookie contract and the Thunder could offer him an extension. Many thought that Harden would accept below market value on his contract extension so he could continue to contend for championships in Oklahoma City. Everyone was apparently wrong. Harden was offered a four year $55 million dollar contract by the Thunder, about $5 million less than the maximum that they were able to offer him on a four year extension. When he declined that extension, Oklahoma City's GM Sam Presti was apparently convinced that he wasn't going to be able to keep Harden and traded him to Houston.

Was Presti wrong for not offering Harden a max contract? Probably, his team would be in a better place with a player like Harden and financially they could have found a way to make it work. Was Harden wrong for not accepting a the OKC offer? Absolutely not! A professional sports career is short and while winning a championship is definitely important to most players, you can't deny the fact that a championship ring won't pay the bills. Harden might have had a better chance at a title in OKC this year, but Houston GM Daryl Morey is creative and will build that Houston team up quickly around Harden and Jeremy Lin.

The only question that keeps coming to my mind about the trade is why did Oklahoma City pull the trigger on the trade so quickly. They could have waited until March to make this deal. If they wait, maybe they realize that Harden is worth the extra cash or they realize that they can live with out and then make the move. Either way, the beard is taking a trip to Houston and the fun loving, young trio of stars in OKC are no more, which has definitely put the Lakers and their hall of fame roster in the drivers seat to represent the West in the NBA finals.