Video: James Harden Opens Up About Struggles in Houston

James Harden made it known to the Houston Rockets, he wanted out and he wanted to be traded to Brooklyn. While most teams would never accommodate such a specific request, given all that Harden had put on for the city they felt it was only right to grant his wish.

While it hadn't all been easy for Harden in Houston, the Nets guard recently opened up about the pressure he faced each and every day.

Harden spoke to the media recently and had this to say:

There's always going to be some kind of negative perception on James. That's when you go out there and continue to prove people wrong. The situation that I was in with Houston - consistently, every single night having to get 40 points to give ourselves a chance to win for a long extent of years - was draining.

Just to be able to have a skillset of guys that you can be a playmaker and you can get guys involved and not having (to) necessarily worry about scoring each possession, it's a little bit relieving for me. I feel like the front office knew where I stood and what I wanted. Apologize for how it went down, but I guess I had to do what I had to do in order to get to where I wanted to go.

Credit to Houston. They didn't necessarily have to trade me to Brooklyn, they could have traded me anywhere, but those are some stand-up guys over there. It ended up the right away, I just didn't like how that month or two played out.

Harden led the league in scoring in each of the last three seasons, averaging 30.4, 36.1, and 34.3 points per game. While he makes it look easy, Harden went through some hard times and is now in a better place because of it. Peep the full interview with Rachel Nichols below: