Steph shrugs off Warriors' tenuous links to Harden trade

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Steph Curry took James Harden's tenuous links to the Warriors with a grain of salt.

Give or take a few hundred grains.

“What was it, probably like two or three years ago, there was a rumor that LeBron [James] was gonna leave [the Cleveland Cavaliers] and come play for us,” Curry quipped to 95.7 The Game's "Damon, Ratto & Kolsky" on Wednesday (h/t 95.7 The Game's Karl Buscheck). “There’s all type of stuff that you hear, and that’s all part of the small world that is the NBA rumor circles and whatnot.”

James, of course, did not leave the Cavaliers to join the Warriors as a free agent in 2018. A report that February indicated that James would meet with Golden State if the team cleared enough salary-cap space to sign him, but James called the reporting "nonsense and a non-story." He ultimately signed with the Los Angeles Lakers as a free agent that summer.

The Warriors were intrigued with the possibility of trading for Harden after the Houston Rockets' second-round playoff elimination this postseason, multiple league sources told NBC Sports Bay Area's Monte Poole. Golden State ultimately cooled on the possibility before Klay Thompson sustained a season-ending torn Achilles, according to Poole.

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Houston has a problem with Harden's future, as he doesn't seem to envision one with the Rockets. Harden reported to training camp Tuesday, two days late and amid reports he's trying to force a trade. The 2017-18 NBA MVP was spotted at rapper Lil Baby's birthday party in Atlanta and then in Las Vegas over the weekend, and ESPN's Tim McMahon reported Wednesday, citing sources, that Harden will need to test negative for the coronavirus for six consecutive days before practicing with the Rockets.

Harden's links to the Warriors weren't nearly as strong as his to the Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers, not that Curry would've paid a lot of attention if they were.

“Some of the stuff you kind of laugh at," Curry continued. "Some of the stuff is just a part of the business but until anything happens in this league, you kinda just brush it off. It’s part of the nature of the business.”

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