James Harden Once Blamed Khloé Kardashian for His Team’s Performance Issues

Khloé Kardashian has dated several high-profile men. She has a particular type of man she goes after, too. The youngest daughter of Robert Kardashian and Kris Jenner has a preference for basketball players. Over the years, she’s dated a few NBA stars and was even married to one. There is only one NBA star who blamed her for his subpar on-court performance. James Harden once claimed his brief romance with Khloé Kardashian negatively affected his gameplay. He also claimed she negatively affected his teammates’ performance.

James Harden once blamed Khloé Kardashian for a subpar NBA season

James Harden and Khloé Kardashian’s relationship was pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things. The couple didn’t marry, never lived together, and didn’t welcome children during their brief romance. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t a ton of attention on them at the time, though. That attention was partially due to the ending of Kardashian’s previous high-profile romance with Lamar Odom. While Harden and Kardashian weren’t a couple for long, the NBA star insisted the romance affected his play. In fact, he also blamed Kardashian for his teammates’ subpar performance.

During a 2017 chat with Sports Illustrated, Harden claimed that the media attention and scrutiny surrounding his relationship with Khloé Kardashian led to his “worst” season. He claimed that the attention surrounding the romance was so distracting that it trickled down to his teammates and led to poor team performance. He even told the outlet that he had to “eliminate” the distraction, suggesting that his desire to play better led to his breakup with Kardashian.

That’s not the way Khloé Kardashian tells it

While James Harden once claimed that he shut down the romance to improve his career and the career of those around him, Khloé Kardashian has a very different take on why the partnership didn’t work out. In 2016, shortly after ending her high-profile relationship with Harden, Kardashian opened up about what went wrong during an episode of Kocktails With Khloé.

She revealed that Harden actively pursued monogamy with her, despite her initially telling him they didn’t have to be in a committed relationship because of how hectic their lives were. She insisted he wanted a commitment, which she was willing to give him. Kardashian said she later learned that Harden was far from monogamous, while expecting her to stay commited to him. She ended the romance from there, insisting that infedelity, not his subpar season, was what led to their split.

Despite the odd breakup and Harden’s post-breakup comments, the former flames are apparently on good terms these days. They have both moved on, at the very least. Kardashian went on to welcome two children with Tristan Thompson, though that relationship was far from smooth. Harden has been dating Paije Speights since 2024.