William Blake wrote a book of poetry called The Songs of Innocence and of Experience in which he explored the loss of childhood. Through poems written from the point of view of identical characters at different stages of life, Blake showed the often dark and sad ways that humans change through the addition of fear and corruption often coming with maturity. With James Harden departing for the Houston Rockets, Blake could now write an entry for Thunder fans in both sections of the book.
Through the first four years of the team's existence in Oklahoma City, the Thunder have been a feel good story. Their presence has drawn the city together with a experience described as "college-like" in a market accustomed to collegiate atmosphere. With extremely young, highly exuberant, classy players, the fans of the Thunder often forget that the people they cheer for are multi-millionaires working in a billion dollar a year business.
Chief among this facade was a character known to most as "The Beard." James Harden is a guy with a childlike outlook on life and the facial hair of crazy old homeless man. Over his first three years he has developed from a streaky bench player who fizzled in the first round of the playoffs to a streaky bench player who had the talent to start and fizzled in the Finals. Of course, during that time he also racked up accolades such as "NBA Sixth Man of the Year" and a roster spot on Team USA. Those were enough to warrant him consideration for a maximum level contract from the Thunder.
The problem was that the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) agreed to between the NBA Players Association and the NBA owners make it very punitive to spend too much on player salary. After providing big paydays to proven all-stars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, as well as hefty contracts for starting big men Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins, the team is very close to the league's salary tax threshold. That said, the team was willing to pay quite a bit of that in order to keep their best substitute.
Speaking of substitute, Harden's willingness to take on a lesser role for "the good of the team" left many with hopes that he would make sacrifices on the financial front in order to stay and help the team create a dynasty. You know what else gave people that impression? His words.