James Harden posted a note to his Instagram account on Monday that said he had been traded to the Hornets. Royce Young of DailyThunder.com snagged a screenshot of the message and shared it on Twitter:
Young says Harden deleted the message, but not before the above screenshot was captured.
So what do you make of this? Was Harden hacked? Was he pulling a Reggie Bush?
The team says he was not traded, and there is some speculation that he may have been duped by a trade reported by a phony Twitter account.
Even if this was the result of falling for a phony Twitter report — and it wouldn’t be the first time someone feel for a fake report — it could just be a foreshadowing of the future. Harden is set to make $5.2 million next season and the team extended him a qualifying offer for the following season. He’ll likely be offered a max deal as a restricted free agent, putting the Thunder in a difficult position. It’s commonly believed that Oklahoma City won’t be able to keep Harden and Serge Ibaka after signing Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook to long-term deals, so they’ll have to be creative about their future. That could include trading one of their stars.
