Basketball: Houston Rockets star James Harden's reported million-dollar night at strip club

James Harden. Photo / Getty

Most NBA players have to wait until long after they've stepped off the court to see if their jersey will be hung up in the rafters.

But for Houston Rockets superstar James Harden, his jersey has already been hung up. It's just not inside the Toyota Center where millions of eyes watch him every year.

Instead Harden's jersey was hoisted to the rafters inside a Houston strip club after the 2018 NBA MVP spent one absurd night throwing money around like it was going out of fashion.

Harden signed a four-year, NZ$262.19 million contract extension with the Rockets with his base salary for 2019/20 sitting at $57 million, according to spotrac.

But despite the absurd amounts of cash he rakes in, Harden reportedly blew $1.53 million at one of Houston's establishments.

James Harden looks to drive. Photo / Photosport

"James has his jersey like hanging from the top," Jamil 'Mal' Clay said on the Joe Budden podcast.

"They were doing that because they said James has been going in there spending like [a lot of money], you know what I mean? So they gave him his own jersey hanging from the rafters of the strip club."

Harden's link to strip clubs has long been known with fans and around the league with one Reddit user uncovering a remarkable link between his impact on games compared to different cities and the strip clubs within them.

One of the most destructive offensive forces in the NBA, Harden's play takes a hit when he ventures into a city where the clubs aren't as premium.

Reddit user Ryan Sullivan shone a light on just how Harden performs on the road and how his impact differs depending on which city he is in and the quality of that cities strip clubs.

A reddit user found a correlation between James Harden’s lack of performance on the road and the quality of strips clubs in that city.... pic.twitter.com/xWg0awhp6K

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) November 7, 2019

The study undertaken by the basketball fan was incredibly thorough and showed the cities where Harden struggled the most.

As the NBA gets set to return with 22 teams moving into Disney World in Orlando, the impact of the cities establishments won't have an impact on Harden's play.

Which is good news for the Rockets as Orlando sat just outside the top 10 cities that affected his play the most.