Eric Gordon didn’t need to be four years as James Harden’s team player, longer than anyone else, to find out how Harden was feeling. It was clear from the start.
“From the summer, as the season started, you could say he didn’t want to be here,” said Gordon.
But Gordon also said he did not feel “disrespected” when Harden said Tuesday that the Rockets did not have enough talent. Gordon saw that as a way to the end of Harden’s Rockets’ tenure, now over with Thursday’s end of the big trade he sends to the Brooklyn Nets.
“For me, with his experience, I don’t think it meant as much as respecting us,” said Gordon. “I think he just wanted a different situation. He has shown that and said too. He wanted his way out. And he got it. ”
Gordon, in his fifth season and second contract with the Rockets, is set to become the Rockets’ longest-serving player ever. He said expectations for the Rockets have changed, but that the end of Harden’s era and uncertainty in his final months with the team will allow the Rockets to move forward.
“We had a big change,” said Gordon, who is a skeptical player in San Antonio on Thursday. “We need to focus on what we need to do now and in the future. But of course it starts now. We have a lot of new guys. It’s time to get acquainted.
“Everyone needs to learn about each other. We have a lot of new players coming in. It is a completely new system. It’s going to be different. ”