Houston Rockets' James Harden in Trouble With Chinese Police

Houston Rockets star James Harden recently got stopped for traveling, but it was not on the [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

Houston Rockets star James Harden recently got stopped for traveling, but it was not on the basketball court. On Friday, he was pulled over by police officers in Shanghai, China.

On Saturday, TMZ Sports published video of Harden being pulled over by officers while driving around on a scooter. The 29-year-old guard was zooming around with some friends, and it is not clear what he was doing wrong. Whatever it was, it caught the attention of police officers.

One Rockets fan from China tweeted Harden was stopped for using a "battery car against regulation." The South China Morning Post reports that it is not clear if the officers knew who Harden was when he was pulled over.

After a talk with the officers, Harden and his friends were given the green light to continue enjoying the city.

Harden later took to Weibo, the social media platform popular in China, to apologize.

"China, thank you for your hospitality. I would like to apologize for violating traffic rules during my scooter ride today," Harden wrote, reports the Morning Post. "Not a good example obviously but I was just trying to enjoy the city as much as possible. Thank you for understanding and I'll make sure to abide by the rules next time here."

Harden has been in China for the past week for an Adidas promotional tour. He met with fans at the Beijing University of Technology and taught a youth basketball clinic at the Tianhe Sports Center in Guangzhou.

The Houston Rockets are one of the most popular NBA teams in China, and visited the country for promotional tours in 2016 and 2017.

Harden has been in the NBA since 2009, when he was drafted by the Oklahoma City Thunder with the third overall pick in the draft. He joined the Rockets in 2012 and won the NBA MVP award in 2018. He is also a seven-time NBA All-Star and was the top-scorer in the league in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons. Harden was also on the Team USA Men's Basketball Team that won the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics.

"Success is not going to happen overnight," Harden, who is still searching for his first NBA Championship, recently told ESPN. "Just because you work out for a week or two means you're supposed to be in the NBA. It's finding ways to keep getting better just a little bit every day. If you always have that mindset, in a year or two years, you'll see the difference. Block out all the negative energy."

Photo credit: Dennis Jerome Acosta/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

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