Clippers' brass: Harden ready to sacrifice for title

LOS ANGELES — The LA Clippers believe that James Harden is joining them with one goal in mind, and he is ready to sacrifice to win a championship.

Lawrence Frank, the Clippers’ president of basketball operations, said LA has seen a pattern of Harden sacrificing his game to adapt to talent around him from when he was in Brooklyn during an injury-shortened stint with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and most recently with Joel Embiid in Philadelphia.

“James Harden should have been an All-Star last year,” Frank said of the Clippers’ new star guard. “But he’s a 10-time All-Star. He has an elite skill set, and all he cares about is one thing: He wants to win a championship for the LA Clippers.

“He wants to be part of something bigger than himself. He’s had all the individual awards. He’s about doing something really special.”

Furious with Philadelphia president of basketball operations Daryl Morey, Harden requested a trade to the Clippers and finally got his wish this week when the two teams struck a deal that became official on Wednesday morning.

Harden, 34, called Morey “a liar” multiple times during a promotional appearance in China in August.

But he looked very happy upon his arrival to the Clippers on Tuesday night when he was joking with former Rockets teammate Russell Westbrook and even singing “You Dropped A Bomb On Me” by the Gap Band in the locker room before the Clippers beat Orlando on Tuesday night.

Harden did not suit up on Wednesday but was on the bench with his new team during the Clippers’ 130-125 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. P.J. Tucker, who was traded from Philadelphia with Harden, played in his first game with his new team, which was also without the injured Terance Mann and playing on the second night of a back-to-back.

Ty Lue lost his first game as Clippers coach to the Lakers in 12 tries after Paul George (35 points) and Norman Powell fouled out. Lue was asked if there was any moment he thought his undermanned team could use its newest weapon.

“Yeah, I saw [that] for 53 minutes,” Lue said.

With four days off before making his potential Clippers’ debut at Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks on Monday, Harden began going over the Clippers’ system with coaches on Wednesday. Lue will treat this rare break in the regular season as sort of a mini-camp to integrate Harden and Tucker.

But Lue and Frank believe their four stars — Harden, Kawhi Leonard, George and Russell Westbrook — are already on the same page as far as doing what it takes to win the franchise’s first NBA title.

Because the trade talks lasted for months between the Clippers and Sixers, George said he spoke with Harden about teaming up. He says all four Clippers stars have talked about making this work.

“I mean we’ve talked leading up to it,” George said after the game. “[That’s] the reason why he’s here. We wanted him here. We all said we think we can make it work, [that] we’ll figure it out.

“But we obviously got to practice. We got to play for us to really get on the same page and understand how to play how on the floor with one another.”

The Clippers are also hoping that because all four of their stars grew up in this area and wanted to play for the Clippers, they’ll find a way make this work.

“What better story to be told than for four Southern Cal guys to do what’s never been done before and be champions?” George said.

Leonard said four of the most accomplished players in the game will need to make sacrifices, but at the same time lean on what has gotten them to where they are.

“I think we still have to come in kind of like with a selfish mindset,” Leonard said. “Meaning we can’t look over our shoulder and say this guy is going to win the game, or this guy’s going to win the game for us. We still have to step on that floor like we are out there by ourselves, and from there, it is going to be sacrifice. It’s only one basketball, and we just got to figure it out from there.

“But I think we all are old enough to understand what we want to do here and we’ll see what happens.”

Westbrook, who played with Harden and Tucker in Houston, said he will try his hardest to make this work. But he also added that he has to be realistic and know that the Clippers will have an adjustment period that could be bumpy at times.

“It’s going to be ups and downs,” Westbrook said. “Going to be good games, bad games. It’s not just going to come together and mesh and we’re going to be perfectly fine. That’s unrealistic expectations for everybody.

“It’s going to be a process. I don’t have the answer what that is.”