‘I’m not a system player, I’m a system’: defiant James Harden joins Clippers

News Snapshot:

“Damn, it’s small in here,” James Harden observed to himself, with a touch of disappointment, as he entered a packed conference room on Thursday afternoon. Harden took a seat at the podium, visibly uncomfortable by the claustrophobic setting. Here he was in his hometown to give his much-anticipated first public remarks as a Los Angeles Clipper following a drama-filled, drawn-out request to be traded away from Philadelphia, to maybe less fanfare than he anticipated. There weren’t exactly innumerable suitors for Harden, the Most Valuable Player of six seasons ago who demanded a trade from his third team in as many...