PALO ALTO, Calif. – By the time James Harden finished his lengthy individual shooting workout, two buses filled with players had already returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers’ hotel after morning shootaround.

Seventeen seasons since entering the NBA, the Cavs guard is still getting extra shots in with hopes that it will eventually pay off with the only thing missing in his professional career: a championship.

“I don’t think the world wants to see [my emotions] if that happens,” said Harden to Andscape on April 2 after the Cavaliers’ shootaround at Stanford University’s Maple Pavilion. “I put so much work into the game. Still to this day, I’m putting work in right now. I’m here for a reason, still putting in a high level [of shots] for a reason. I generally work my butt off. People don’t really see it, which is fine because I’m here for a reason.

“A lot of guys faded away, and we still see guys in year 17-plus. It’s only a handful of them that’s still playing at the highest level, which means credit to their work. But [a championship is] something that I work my butt off for every single day, and I’m going to continue to just keep going and keep trying until that happens.”

The third overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft is a 2018 NBA Most Valuable Player, an 11-time NBA All-Star, a 2012 NBA Sixth Man of the Year and a member of the NBA 75th Anniversary team. Harden played in the NBA Finals once as a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2012. But when it comes to hardware, the 36-year-old is still pained by not winning a championship.

When asked if it’s safe to say there might not be an NBA star with more postseason bad luck than him, Harden answered, “Probably.” His only NBA Finals appearance lasted a mere five games as the Miami Heat beat the Thunder in 2012.

Harden has a 1-3 record in the conference finals, including losing in Game 7 to the Golden State Warriors while playing for the Houston Rockets in 2018. A season ago, Harden and the Clippers lost Game 7 to the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs. The future Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer hasn’t always had his best games in the biggest playoff contests and has also been plagued by key injuries, bad luck and more along his challenging postseason journey.

“Whether it’s injuries, whether it’s personnel based, not good enough, coaching, there are a lot of things and situations where I get scrutinized or whatever the case may be,” Harden said. “There are things that go on to where it’s like, ‘Oh cool, this is how we want you to play and we see this as the best situation for you to play to help our team.’ So, if I got the green light and I’m scoring and averaging 28 points, I just have a bad game, all right, cool. But that’s not my particular role for that team and I’m more of a playmaker, that’s what that coach wants me to do.

“If that’s how we’ve been playing and the way we’ve been winning all year long, then you can’t expect me to go out there and get 40 [points], which I have done that multiple times. It just didn’t work out. It is what it is. I don’t have any regrets. I don’t feel any way. I just keep pushing. That’s all I can control. We’re going to keep pushing until we can’t push no more.”

Harden now has another chance at an elusive title after a midseason move to the Cavaliers.

With a win-now mindset, the Cavaliers acquired Harden from the Clippers on Feb. 4 for guard Darius Garland and draft considerations. Cleveland’s hope is that the All-Star duo of Harden and Donovan Mitchell can vault the franchise to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2018.

The Cavaliers (50-29) are 18-6 since acquiring Harden and are challenging the New York Knicks for the third seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Harden has averaged 20.5 points, 7.9 assists and 5.0 rebounds over 24 appearances with Cleveland, and he described his time with the franchise so far as “amazing.”

Tonight, Harden and the Cavs face the Atlanta Hawks (ESPN, 7 p.m. ET).

“It’s an opportunity to reach the endpoint for me,” Harden said. “We all know what that is. Just because it’s a different team doesn’t mean it’s always going to be easy. It isn’t always going to be a breeze. Luckily, I’ve dealt with the situation multiple times in my career. I’m just trying to find ways to put my input on the team and end up with the end result.”

Another challenge for Harden is that midseason NBA trades rarely lead to championships.

Harden noted that his former Clippers teammate Kawhi Leonard did it with the Toronto Raptors in 2019. Harden was at Artesia High School in Los Angeles when the Los Angeles Lakers acquired Pau Gasol in a midseason trade in 2008. The Lakers played in the NBA Finals that year and won titles the next two seasons. The Detroit Pistons’ midseason acquisition of Rasheed Wallace in 2004 also led to a title.

Now Harden is trying to make history with Cleveland in a short timeframe. He said he has told teammates that if they can stay healthy they have a chance to win it all.

“It’s different because you don’t really have the time,” Harden said. “A lot of these other teams, whether it’s OKC or Boston, they’ve been playing together for years. So, they kind of have the experience. You go through certain tough times in the regular season, in the postseason, and you kind of build off that, you get that and you learn from it. Unfortunately, we haven’t had that yet, but hopefully you don’t have to. That’s the whole point.

“I’m at a point in my career where I don’t have no pride. I think everybody knows what I want to accomplish. However that looks, whether I’m scoring 25 or dishing out the ball. It’s a game feel. It’s a series feel.”

While the Cavs are loaded with talent like Harden, Mitchell and big men Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, the spotlight will be on the Harden-Mitchell duo in the postseason. So far, Harden has been ecstatic about his backcourt partnership with Mitchell.

“A star that is unselfish,” Harden said in describing Mitchell, who also stayed late to get extra work in at that Cavaliers shootaround. “He has no problem with giving me the ball or his feel for the game. That is where we complement each other. If I have it going or he has it going, we don’t have any problem letting each other keep going. That is better for our team.

“I’m unselfish. He is unselfish. You have two guys who want to complement each other. That is the most important thing.”

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