{"id":702424,"date":"2026-06-13T21:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T21:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/702424\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T21:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T21:51:09","slug":"james-harden-charges-explained-cavs-star-arrested-with-illegal-weapon-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/702424\/","title":{"rendered":"James Harden charges, explained: Cavs star arrested with illegal weapon in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Harden charges, explained: Cavs star arrested with illegal weapon in Texas<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Early on Saturday morning, Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> star James Harden<\/a> was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for unlawful carrying of a weapon in Houston<\/a>, according to multiple reports.<\/a><\/p>\n

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The guard was taken into custody around 3:41 a.m. and booked into Harris County Jail just over an hour later at 4:57 a.m. He has since been released on bond and has an upcoming court date.<\/p>\n

Here’s the latest on the Cleveland star’s weapon arrest in The Lone Star State.<\/p>\n

NBA PLAYOFFS HQ:Live NBA scores<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NBA playoff schedule<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NBA playoff bracket<\/a><\/p>\n

James Harden charges, explained:<\/p>\n

Around 3:40 a.m. early on Saturday morning, Harden was taken into custody in the Houston area after an officer observed a handgun in plain sight inside his vehicle. Harden had \u201cunlawfully, intentionally and knowingly\u201d carried the weapon, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

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Per the current Texas gun laws<\/a>, “If a handgun is partially or wholly visible, it must be in a holster.”<\/p>\n

Harden was booked just over an hour later, at 4:57 a.m., and was later released after paying a $100 bond. His court date is currently scheduled for June 22, according to the clerk’s office website.<\/p>\n

Harden and his representatives have not commented on the situation thus far.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0James Harden’s complete history of teams and trades<\/a><\/p>\n

Where was James Harden arrested<\/p>\n

Harden was arrested in Houston\u00a0early on Saturday morning, according to The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Cavalier was arrested at 3:41 a.m. and was booked in the Harris County Jail at 4:57 a.m. He has since been released on bond and has a scheduled court date on June 22.<\/p>\n

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MORE:\u00a0What did Knicks fans throw at Victor Wembanyama in NYC?<\/a><\/p>\n

Will James Harden be suspended?<\/p>\n

At the moment, it is unclear whether or not Harden will be suspended to begin the upcoming 2026-27 NBA season. The Cavaliers are aware of the situation and have since released the following statement, with no further comment coming in the near future.<\/p>\n

“The Cleveland Cavaliers are aware of the arrest of James Harden this morning and are in the process of gathering additional information,” the Cavaliers said in a statement, according to ESPN<\/a>. “We are in contact with James and his representation and will continue to monitor developments as they become available. At this time, we will have no further comment.”<\/p>\n

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While the circumstances were a bit different, Memphis Grizzlies<\/a> guard Ja Morant<\/a> was originally suspended for eight games for his first incident with a gun at a nightclub. Harden’s gun was reportedly resting on a car seat unholstered, so he was not seen using it by officials.<\/p>\n

James Harden contract details<\/p>\n

According to Spotrac<\/a>, Harden is on the tail end of a two-year, $81.5 million contract originally signed with the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He will likely become a free agent at the end of June. He does still have a decision to make regarding his $42 million player option by June 29, but only $13.3 million of that is guaranteed. It has been expected that Harden will opt out of his current contract and sign a new multiyear deal to stay in Cleveland.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0How did James Dolan make his money?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Harden charges, explained: Cavs star arrested with illegal weapon in Texas originally appeared on The Sporting News.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[852,8174,303576,7095,22714,6418,303654,25169,11952,7741,355,13331,99,32090],"class_list":["post-702424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-harris-county-jail","tag-houston","tag-ja-morant","tag-james-harden","tag-james-harden-contract","tag-knicks","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-nba","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-sports","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}