{"id":600464,"date":"2026-02-13T07:56:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T07:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/600464\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T07:56:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T07:56:30","slug":"james-harden-has-shocking-take-on-loyalty-after-stunning-trade-to-cavaliers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/600464\/","title":{"rendered":"James Harden has shocking take on loyalty after stunning trade to Cavaliers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following his stunning <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/clippers-trade-james-harden-cavaliers-012051161.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:trade from the Clippers to the Cavaliers,;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">trade from the Clippers to the Cavaliers,<\/a> James Harden now seems convinced loyalty isn\u2019t much of a thing in the NBA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/james-harden-breakup-not-others-120000162.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:whole quote-unquote loyalty thing,\u201d;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">whole quote-unquote loyalty thing,\u201d<\/a> Harden said Wednesday night, \u201cI think it\u2019s overrated. This is a business at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harden gave his candid feelings on allegiance in the Association just after he wrapped up his first game in Cleveland as a Cav.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The 36-year-old logged 13 points, 11 assists and four rebounds, and helped lead his new team to a 138-113 victory.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"James Harden helped lift the Cavaliers to a victory on Wednesday night with 13 points, 11 assists and four rebounds. NBAE via Getty Images\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/dbc208f5f319f038c04626fdec882a04.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>James Harden helped lift the Cavaliers to a victory on Wednesday night with 13 points, 11 assists and four rebounds. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>In an ensuing sitdown with reporters, Harden spoke for about a minute and a half on why he tries to view the NBA as strictly business now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s just so many different dynamics that go into it,\u201d Harden said. \u201cThis is a business at the end of the day. So, like, not even just the NBA. People that have normal jobs have those same problems. They\u2019re just not magnified, you know what I mean?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"James Harden\u2019s now played in three total games for the Cavaliers since his trade from Los Angeles. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"641\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4e475340a3ada11a411879770b98c3c7.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>James Harden\u2019s now played in three total games for the Cavaliers since his trade from Los Angeles. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n<p>After the Feb. 7 swap that sent Harden to Ohio in exchange for Darius Garland, the future Hall of Famer has now been traded five total times in his illustrious 17-year NBA career.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>All the jersey switching has apparently narrowed his focus, as he went on to say he has just two priorities now when it comes to his basketball career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWinning a championship, or at least having a chance to,\u201d he said, \u201cand then financially getting paid for me being available and playing at the highest level for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following his stunning trade from the Clippers to the Cavaliers, James Harden now seems convinced loyalty isn\u2019t much&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,305,193,3846,765,791,301,187,560,80163,251,4164,6,80164,3209],"class_list":{"0":"post-600464","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-cavaliers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cavaliers","10":"tag-cleveland","11":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","12":"tag-clevelandcavaliers","13":"tag-colorado","14":"tag-darius-garland","15":"tag-denver","16":"tag-denver-nuggets","17":"tag-james-harden","18":"tag-leah-doherty","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-mandatory-credit","21":"tag-nba","22":"tag-strictly-business","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116062257376985973","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}