James Harden was fined $50,000 by the NBA on Wednesday for violating the league’s COVID-19 protocol. He stands to potentially lose even more money for the violation.
The Houston Rockets-Oklahoma City Thunder game scheduled for Wednesday was postponed because the Rockets would not have had the requisite eight players needed for a game. Several Rockets players would have missed Wednesday’s game due to either inconclusive COVID-19 tests or contact tracing.
Harden reportedly attended a party at a strip club on Monday night without a mask on, though he denied the accusation. That is the violation he committed.
The NBA is still working with medical personnel on how long Harden must quarantine before being allowed to return to the Rockets. He would not be paid for any games he misses during that quarantine period. Harden would lose $284,517 for each game he misses.
Over the next 10 days, Houston has games scheduled on:
– Dec. 26 at Portland
– Dec. 28 at Denver
– Dec. 31 vs. Sacramento
– Jan. 2 vs. Sacramento
When Lou Williams was forced into quarantine over his violation in the bubble, the period lasted 10 days. If Harden has to quarantine for the next 10 days, he would miss four games. Add in the $50,000 fine, and he would be looking at a loss of $1,188,068. If he missed two games it would be just over $619,000, and three games would be $903,551. That’s not nothing, even for a millionaire.
