Goodbye Harden.

:( 

I am from Austin, Texas and therefore I am naturally a gigantic Oklahoma City Thunder fan. I have experienced some highs and lows with the team. Reaching the NBA finals last season was the cheech and chong of highs for me, and until recently the lowest of lows was losing the NBA finals to LeBron James and the rest of the Miami Lebrons.

Then Saturday happened.

I have been postponing writing this for sometime now, as everytime I tried to it just ended with me wanting to throw my computer throw the wall and burn down a children’s hospital.

I have settled down since and I am finally ready to talk about it.

Saturday October 27^th 2012 will go down as one of the saddest moments of my sports life. I can’t really rank them but my top 5 would probably be the Rangers losing to the Giants, the Rangers losing to the Cardinals (actually I can say that is the number 1 saddest moment), Professor Chaos throwing our season away, UT losing the national title to Bama, and then Saturday.

James Harden is, and will forever be, one of my favorite players.

Harden being traded is like being dumped by every girl I have ever dated all over again and then immediately turning around and all dating Craig James then sending me pictures of the drunk, coked up, dead hooker-ridden, group shower sex scenes that I assume they would have, and then convincing Pluckers and Aardvark to ban me for life. Then making me go to Baylor.

In summary, I’m upset. And here is why.

The trio of Thunder players (Harden, Kevin Durant, and Russell Westbrook) were all among the top-20 players in the league, all under the age of 25, and complemented each other so well because of their impossibly close chemistry on and off the court.

They were brothers.

That chemistry made them impossible to stop, and the direction of the franchise was one of an elite contender for years and years to come. They had the look of a squad that played for the love of the game and the love of each other.

A team like that hadn’t been seen like that since Jordan’s Bulls or the Showtime Lakers. Multiple elite talents entering their prime who loved and played for each other. I’m sorry Miami, but that is the recipe for not 1, not 2, not 3 (etc.) championships.

And they broke it up.

They fucking broke it up.

The reason they gave for trading Harden (and what they may have in fact convinced themselves was the truth) was that he would not take a pay cut and therefore would send them into the luxury tax.

The Thunder did not want to pay the luxury tax because they were claiming the small market bullshit, even though they had been profiting since the team moved to OKC. Wanna know why? Because they sell out EVERY SINGLE GAME. They profit close to 30 million a year, at least. Paying the extra 2 million or whatever would have been nothing. They just didn’t want to lose profit.

In essence their decision was greed driven. And that is the hardest part to stomach.

Had Harden left on his own accord then at least I could have rationalized that he was not a team player and we could live without him, even though that would have been ignoring his enormous contribution and the fact that he sacrificed minutes, points, shots, and notoriety for the good of the team.

As it is, Presti is the one to blame. But how can I blame a person who has made every single perfect decision, and turned a perennial lottery team into an elite championship contender in a matter of like 3 years?

I can’t. I can’t blame anyone for this tragedy.

So now I just have to sit her while we make the playoffs year after year and then lose in the first or second round. Perhaps never winning a ring.

As a sports fan there is nothing more agonizing than unfulfilled potential. But that is what we are left with in the wake of Harden’s trade.

I am not okay.