LeBron's Exit & Harden's Legacy in the Playoffs | 99Chalk

The King and the beard

May 10th, 2026

Yeah, I thought we'd have some better games this round considering how great the first round was, but it looks like we're just getting ass-kickings left and right. This is all setting up for a great conference finals.

A boys love of James Harden

Growing up, I didn’t have a basketball team to root for. Living in Seattle, Washington, we got our team stolen by the Oklahoma City Thunder, so I didn’t really have a person or a team to cheer for. I never played basketball, but I loved watching it, and as I watched more and more, I started to learn how the game really works. There’s one player that caught my attention and that player’s name is James Harden.

Now, James Harden has been hated for a long period of his career. Pretty much his entire career, he’s been thought of as one-dimensional, as someone you can never win with. And well, that has proven to be at least partially accurate. You can’t win with James Harden, at least not so far. He is one of the best offensive players of all time, and over the past couple of days in the Cavs-Pistons series, he’s been struggling in the playoffs, and that playoff-choker narrative has been coming back. But yesterday, he proved that maybe Harden isn’t the choker we think he is. And maybe I’ll bite my tongue when tomorrow he goes 0-for-10 and scores 7 points like we’ve seen him do many times in the playoffs — but I think that game yesterday shows how capable he is of performing when it matters, and how important he is to NBA history. Even if he never wins a ring, the way he’s revolutionized the game will always be remembered.

And again, as a young kid who became a Harden fan and then a Rockets fan, I hope he can get to the championship and potentially win one. I mean, if it’s going to be against the Thunder — the team that stole my team — led by James Harden, that would be amazing. But the Knicks look pretty unstoppable, so we’ll see if that happens.

OKC

Now to OKC. What a whooping they’re putting on the Lakers. And it’s unfortunate, because this may be LeBron’s last playoff series. I doubt he’d retire after getting his ass kicked by the Thunder and potentially getting swept, but damn it would be tough to see LeBron go out like this. You can only hope that maybe he doesn’t re-sign with the Lakers and finds a team that can actually contend, because this would be a brutal way to see him go out.

The Thunder are just so good. They are flat-out kicking ass, and it’s going to be hard to beat them even if the Spurs win. I just can’t see a world where OKC doesn’t make it to the Finals. They have the talent, they have the depth, and now they have a top-12 pick after the lottery today. They have the chips to get even better next year and add another blue-chipper. But let’s hope, for all of our sakes, that this isn’t LeBron’s last hurrah and that next year he’ll be back in the playoffs because right now, this is a true ass-kicking.

Only basketball tonight. I’m going to start writing more about culture and paying closer attention to the other sports going on, but it’s the playoffs, so that’s our focus for today. See you all tomorrow.