When James Harden wore a mask with an American flag with a skinny blue line — generally involved with the professional-police Blue Lives Subject motion — he was seemingly making a political statement. But the Rockets star states he wore it solely out of type.

“Honestly I wasn’t seeking to make a political assertion,” Harden informed reporters Friday. “Honestly I wore it just because it coated my complete facial area and my beard.”

The Rockets posted a photograph of Harden donning the mask and captioned it “Mask up” upon his delayed arrival to the NBA’s bubble in Orlando. The NBA shared it on its official Twitter site as effectively.

The mask also depicted a Punisher skull, which has generally been associated with much-ideal extremist teams. Tailored from the Marvel Comics character, Punisher’s creator has questioned police to prevent making use of the symbol, expressing that the character “represents a failure of the justice method.”

Critics of the pro-law enforcement image have argued that it represented opposition to the Black Life Make any difference movement. Harden, nonetheless, has managed his motivation to the latter.

“It’s fairly basic. As I talked about (Thursday), me getting a way to, regardless of whether it’s with my jersey identify or yet another way to show my assistance for Black Life Make any difference,” Harden stated. “So that is quite straightforward. Actually, in each occupation, there is people that do their work at a substantial degree, and then there is b.s. men and women. In each job. That was it. I wasn’t right here to make a political statement.”