Nearly a decade after the Oklahoma City Thunder fell to the Miami Heat in the 2011-12 NBA Finals, Kendrick Perkins is still frustrated with how things turned out.
Specifically, Perkins is disappointed in the focus - or lack thereof - that James Harden exhibited in his first (and to this point, only) trip to the NBA Finals.
Perkins recently joined Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on their podcast, and says that while much of his team had focus on attempting to take down LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, Harden's mind appeared to be elsewhere.
"After we won the conference finals, I saw the energy in everybody and they acted like we had won the championship," Perkins said. "And you expect that out of some young guys, but I'm like 'Man, we got these motherf****** who over here waiting on us, and they are waiting on their first title run with a veteran team of Mike Miller, James Jones...they got all these motherf****** who chasing their hardware.'
"So, we end up getting Game 1, they got Game 2, but when we went to Miami, we could not get a win to save our life, man. Russ [Russell Westbrook] and KD [Kevin Durant] came to play...I remember I had a couple double-doubles...Serge [Ibaka] was doing pretty good, but man, James ain't give a s*** and you know why. Motherf****** King of Diamonds and everything cut a hole in his hands."
If you're not familiar, King of Diamonds is a strip club in Miami. The insinuation is that Harden, 22 at the time, was as interested in the night life that came with playing in Miami, as he was with trying to defeat the Heat. Harden, who has gone on to become one of the most prolific scorers in NBA history, averaged just 12.4 points per game in the series, shooting an unsightly 37.5%.
So what was the difference between the NBA Finals, and the Western Conference Finals, where Harden averaged 18.5 points per game? Location, location, location.
"In San Antonio, you didn't have a damn thing to do. S***, we got to motherf****** Miami, it was every motherf****** thing to do," Perkins said of Harden. "We couldn't get that motherf****** to buy a bucket in that motherf*****."
Though it was their first of two consecutive championships in Miami, there's a case to be made that the Thunder had as good of a roster that year, if not better. That's why they won the first game of the series, and narrowly lost in Game 2. By the final game in Miami, though, it was clear that the Thunder weren't ready for the moment, as they lost by 15 in the series-clinching game. While some thought it would be the first of many trips to the NBA Finals, Harden was traded to the Houston Rockets after the season, and Durant and Westbrook alone failed to return to the sport's highest stage.
Harden and Durant are once again teammates, this time with the Brooklyn Nets. Durant won two championships (and NBA Finals MVPs) in Golden State, but is looking to win one away from Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and a team that he was viewed as simply the icing on the cake to. Harden, now 31, is just hoping to get back to the NBA Finals, something he seemingly has a shot to do this year.
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