Kendrick Perkins blames LeBron James and Dwyane Wade for James Harden leaving OKC Thunder

Kendrick Perkins says LeBron James and Dwyane Wade convinced James Harden to demand a trade

Kendrick Perkins spoke on the Road Trippin’ podcast recently. When discussing Kevin Durant’s comments about James Harden leaving the OKC Thunder.

Perkins verified these comments, adding that the team knew even before he left, as Durant had seen LeBron James and Dwyane Wade get in Harden’s ear at the Olympics about leaving to be a star.

“They f—— knew before the tweets came out when James left. KD came back; they were all at the Olympics. They had just won gold. James was there, KD was there, Russ was there.

“We went into training camp, and KD was like, ‘We’re gonna lose James… Bron, D-Wade, all of them were telling him that he needs his own team…’

“Then all of a sudden, the contract negotiations started, I went to holla at James. He goes, ‘I want the max! I want to be the franchise guy!'”

James Harden didn’t want to be a third superstar

While it’s easy to say that the Thunder made a mistake with the benefit of hindsight, the context of the time also matters.

While James Harden had been excellent for the Thunder, he was coming off the bench as the sixth man for much of the 2011-2012 season, even winning the Sixth Man of the Year award.

At the time of his departure, there were some rumors that Harden didn’t want to accept a bench role anymore, and the Thunder couldn’t guarantee him a starting role.

In the end, the decision to leave the Thunder proved to be the making of Harden, as he elevated himself into a superstar and MVP on the Houston Rockets.