James Harden Reacts After ESPN Posts Photo of Him That Fans Dub 'Hamburger Shaming'
A video of 76er’s guard James Harden refueling with a quartet of hamburgers has gone viral, and he's not happy about it.
It began when Houston rapper Bun B posted a video to his Instagram to promote Trill Burgers, his Houston-based fast food restaurant. Attendees at Miami’s Rolling Loud music festival were shown scooping up burgers, and one of these merry eaters turned out to be Harden.
The NBA star walked off with four burger boxes stacked on top of each other. Hardly an excessive meal for any of us, let alone a professional athlete. Nevertheless, it prompted ESPN’s SportsCenter to share the clip on IG while making a joke at Harden’s expense.
“Who was Harden grabbing burgers for?” the caption queried, along with an emoji of two watchful—some might say prying—eyes.
An accompanying clip shows Harden taking the burgers and calmly disappearing into the crowd, as they keep time to Travis Scott’s “Goosebumps.”
Harden then weighed in with his own remark in the comments.
“Slow news week?” Harden quipped from his private account.
Last month, reports hit that Harden has his eyes on a trade from the Philadelphia 76ers in the upcoming season. The alleged news prompted some commenters to crack jokes that Harden was “trying to eat his way out of Philly,” but some took to the NBA guard’s defense.
One user, going by the name mr.kramer_1991, tagged both Harden and SportsCenter in his fiery rebuke of the so-called "hamburger shaming."
“Why don’t you show who he got them for?” the user begins, before taking the tact of a concerned parent. “Did James eat at all that day? Did he have friends with him? Maybe he wanted to be generous? You guys go and get a photo, and basically try to pick on the man for buying some burgers.”
Last week, the 76er’s president of basketball operations, Daryl Morey, appeared on Philly’s 97.5 FM to discuss Harden’s possible trade.
“He’s wishing for a different situation contractually…If we can do something that is win-win, helps the Sixers, then we will look at it. If we can’t, then we won’t,” Morey reported. That same week, Harden removed all mention of the 76ers from his social media accounts.
Wherever Harden ends up next season, we hope that city has at least one great burger joint.