James Harden is reportedly headed to Tokyo.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Harden has committed to Team USA and will play alongside Brooklyn Nets teammate Kevin Durant at the Tokyo Olympics. Charania also reports that Kyrie Irving, the third member of the "Big 3" in Brooklyn, will not make the trip to Tokyo as he recovers from an ankle injury.
This will be Harden's second trip to the Olympics. He helped Team USA win gold at the London Olympics in 2012 before opting out of the Rio Games in 2016.
View social media post: https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1407039322302341124
Harden, 31, is one of the top basketball players on the planet. The Los Angeles native is a nine-time NBA All-Star and was named the NBA's Most Valuable Player in 2018. A three-time NBA scoring champion, Harden has been named to the All-NBA First Team six times since 2014.
After spending nearly a decade playing for the Houston Rockets, Harden was traded to the Nets in January and immediately formed one of the top trios in basketball alongside Durant and Irving. He finished the 2020-21 regular season averaging 24.6 points per game and making .471 percent of his field goals. He also registered a career-high 8.5 rebounds per game in his 36 games with the Nets.
Harden and Durant will be joined by some elite company in Tokyo. Thus far, several other NBA stars have been reported to be headed to Japan for the Games, including Bradley Beal, Draymond Green, Damian Lillard and Jayson Tatum.
