When Houston Rockets star James Harden arrived at the NBA “bubble” just under two weeks ago, he quickly and unknowingly created a controversy with his choice of a large facial covering.
While “The Beard” was trying to follow the league’s safety protocols and prevent the spread of COVID-19, he didn’t realize that the blue mask he had acquired also carried some political symbolism.
After the backlash on social media, Harden was asked the next day whether he knew that meaning. He responded:
No. I just felt like it was something that covered my whole face, and the beard. I thought it looked cool, that was it.
Specifically, his face covering included a thin blue line, which has become known as a symbol representing the Blue Lives Matter organization. Critics have claimed that the pro-police symbol also stands for white supremacy and opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement.
After Sunday’s scrimmage victory by the Rockets, Harden did his postgame interviews in a standard and very uncontroversial black mask, without any logo. On the other hand, it certainly wasn’t as form-fitting.
As many users on Twitter figured out, Harden wasn’t exaggerating when he described the challenges of finding a mask that covered his whole face, and the large beard.
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