James Harden should pull Lionel Messi move and play in China, says NBA analyst – ‘sometimes you have got to feel the love’

NBA superstar advised he might be better off cashing in now while still in his prime, just like football icon Messi in the MLS
‘What if Harden said I’m sick of Daryl Morey. No teams want me, and that’s fine, I’ll go where I’m loved,’ Fox Sports analyst says

NBA (National Basketball Association)

Nicolas Atkin

Published: 10:58am, 18 Aug 2023

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James Harden has suggested he could be tempted to play a season in China near the end of his career – but the NBA superstar has been advised that it might be better to cash in now while he is still in his prime, just as football superstar Lionel Messi has done with Inter Miami in Major League Soccer.

The 33-year-old former MVP has been at loggerheads with his Philadelphia 76ers team president Daryl Morey, calling him in a “liar” on a recent promotional trip to China.

His words brought applause from the gathered media in Beijing, where Morey is a sore subject after his tweet in support of the 2019 anti-government protests in Hong Kong, which saw NBA coverage suspended in China for a whole season.

Harden is looking for a trade but has been told to report to a preseason training camp, and experts have suggested his time in the NBA could soon be over if he does not back down.

Fox Sports basketball analyst Jason McIntyre, however, said the 33-year-old American should leave the United States behind as soon as possible, and embrace the love of his fans in China.

=== PHOTO CAPTURED ONLINE=== NBA star James Harden takes a gigantic group selfie with supporters at his fan event in China.

“I’ve got to wonder … if James Harden is so dug in – we noticed that he made this big statement in China, and do you know who is one of the most popular NBA players in China? James Harden,” McIntyre said in a recent appearance on The Volume podcast.

“We just saw Lionel Messi turn down a billion dollars in Saudi Arabia. Lionel Messi said ‘I’ll go to the MLS, I’ll get a chunk of the team and the Apple profits’.”

Argentine World Cup winner Messi, 36, has been on fire since leaving European giants Paris Saint-Germain in the summer for Miami, scoring nine goals in his first six games.

He has sparked a wave of fresh interest not just in Inter Miami – who gained 11 million Instagram followers in the first month after his arrival – but also the MLS itself among football fans worldwide.

And McIntyre feels Harden could have a similar effect on basketball in China, where he has already witnessed first hand his commercial appeal, selling 10,000 bottles of his own-brand wine in a matter of seconds on a recent Chines live stream.

“What if James Harden said ‘I’m sick of this Daryl Morey crap. No teams want me, and that’s fine, I’ll go where I’m loved. I thought Houston loved me, they went after Fred VanVleet’.

“Harden had been saying for months that’s where he’d love to go. So where does James Harden feel the love? The answer is China. Sometimes you’ve got to feel the love.”

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