James Harden Couldn’t Stop Staring At Nicki Minaj After Her NBA Awards Show Performance

Monday night the NBA made its foray into the awards show world with the aptly named NBA Awards hosted by Drake. As with any awards show, it featured a monologue from Drake that poked fun at many of the stars in attendance.

There were also musical performances from the likes of 2 Chainz and Nicki Minaj. While some complained on Twitter about the length of the show — which, at this point is to be expected from an awards show — and wished they would have cut the performances, there were others that were far more intrigued by what was happening on stage.

Among those was Rockets star and MVP finalist James Harden, who appeared mesmerized by Minaj after she wrapped her somewhat racy performance, staring wide-eyed at the stage while clapping.

Harden’s face immediately became a meme on Twitter as people had a field day with the thirsty looking Harden getting caught staring on camera. Harden was the subject of plenty “risk it all” jokes, as he appeared to not be overly focused on the impending MVP reveal still to come on the night.

https://twitter.com/iseelaa_murrgaa/status/879523081265397760

https://twitter.com/EMDUBAI/status/879519571178291201

https://twitter.com/BagHead111/status/879521244198121473

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Harden was interviewed by Drake shortly after Nicki’s performance and he appeared to still be a bit distracted as he just kind of trailed off after Drake’s question, leading Drake to just cut bait and move on.

https://twitter.com/devonharipal/status/879521084344721408