James Harden Regrets Sacrificing Money and Swagger to Chase Championship with Nets

James Harden's tenure with the Brooklyn Nets was about as short and sweet as it gets.

Feb 2, 2022; Sacramento, California, USA; Brooklyn Nets guard James Harden (13) during the game against the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-USA TODAY Sports | USA TODAY Sports

James Harden's tenure with the Brooklyn Nets was about as short and sweet as it gets.

He forced his way out of Houston, allegedly rocking fat suits and feuding with his Rockets teammates.

When he first came to Brooklyn, it was Scary Hours, as he said.

Harden was about to go to work alongside Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. When all three were on the court together, Harden's moniker certainly lived up to the billing.

However, injuries and other inconvenient absences from the lineup contributed to the Nets' rapid downfall, seemingly making Harden feel regretful in hindsight.

“Let me just try to sacrifice the money, the individual accolades, all that," Harden said on an episode of Earn Your Leisure. "Let me just try to sacrifice and switch it up a little bit, and hopefully that’ll work in my favor in the sense of trying to win a championship.

“So that’s when the Brooklyn situation happened, that was tricky. We had the opportunity. And then the Philly situation, where it’s like same thing: let me just be a playmaker, switch up my role.

“None of that worked. Like, you feel me?

“I sacrificed money, I sacrificed being the top scorer that I am, that I still am and will be. Long story short: it was for nothing.

“I lost a lot of money and I lost a lot of swagger on the court, just from sacrificing, thinking that all that’s gonna get me to win a championship.”

While it's easy to make that Nets team the butt of all jokes, they at least matched, if not exceeded expectations from an on-court perspective at full strength.

Harden kept the Nets towards the top of the standings when Durant went down for a couple of months, garnering legitimate MVP consideration

Hamstring troubles limited Harden's effectiveness in the playoffs and he seemingly came into the following season out of shape, the first of many signs he was growing frustrated in Brooklyn.

Harden's frustration partially came from Irving's ineligibility, but had he stayed patient through that, the Nets' Big 3 could've rediscovered the necessary chemistry to help them finish the job.

Though Harden and the Nets never won a title, Brooklyn gave The Beard the best opportunity to add a ring to his finger.

Harden seemed comfortable primarily focusing on optimizing his teammates for success while Durant and Irving handled the majority of the scoring load, as evidenced by the on-court success.