Why isnt James Harden more popular with fans? The Jump

I wasn't trying to convince anyone that Harden was better than LeBron. Thanks for proving my point.

 

Not fair to either player really, but...let's be honest, Harden likely wouldn't have won with any of those teams that Lebron won with. I mean, Miami sure, Cleveland, I don't think so.

 

I love Harden as much as the next man, but he is a bit of a statpadder. Against Dallas he was clearly aiming for 30 points to preserve his streak. It's not as egregious as Westbrook's rebounds of course, but I'm ok with it.

 

From European standpoint, many don't like him because they think his stepback 3 is a travel. It is a travel by European standards because we don't have gather step, but it's silly to expect Harden will adhere to stricter standards if he doesn't have to.

Also pounding the ball for 15 seconds is way less appealing than Curry's dancing or Westbrook's dunks.

I just love watching Harden toying with defenders. Unfortunately most people here don't agree with me

 

He can pad his stats as much as he wants as long as it leads to a win.

 

lol, the lakers roster is bad.

 

Wrong! He was giving up the ball consistently during the 4th and even at the end. It was his teammates who keep feeding him and forcing him to take those shots. CP3 even said it postgame. Credit to him, he knocked them down.

 

Harden is not a stat padder.

Without him on the court, we wouldn't be 5th seed right now.

If anything, he'll stat-pad to get to 30 pts, and that's way better than RW going out there to grab his triple dubs every night and jacking up 3s with his horrific 3 pt percentage.

 

Everyone these days is a little bit aware of the stats.

He is a lesser stat cruncher than WB for sure.

 

Others have pointed out all the stuff about how he basically spent most of the fourth trying to help his teammates, and how we still weren't out of the woods even maybe with 4 minutes left in the game, so I won't go into that here.

And, let's just for argument's sake, say that, yes, 100% he was strictly going for his 30 in those last couple minutes.

He did it in a pretty difficult way. 3 out of 3 on long, contested, stepback threes, and an excellent steal leading to a rare Houston fast break and two free throws which he also made.

My position: that's really impressive regardless of motivation, so I don't care to analyze why he did things. I'm just soaking in that he could and did do those things.

 

it's amazing that so many on here don't understand this. there is a 1000000% chance that if harden played for any other team he would be universally hated on this board for exactly all the reasons most other fans don't like him - slow, methodical game, chunker, foul chasing, exploiting the rules, lazy defender (even though that narrative is incredibly lazy in and of itself now), etc. But he isn't on some other team, he's on our Rockets and so we love him. doesn't mean you should lose all objectivity, though.

this isn't some grand conspiracy. folks just need to GTF over it.

 

IF other fans outside of Houston liked harden or didn't mind him he must be doing something wrong. The fact that they hate him is a testament to his greatness and cooking their team. You think for one second if harden as a free agent these b*stard would pass on him? Lol

 

His work is not flashy or jump-out-the-building athletic, so people see less exciting and eye-pleasing highlights.

Instead, he is patient, mesmerizing, consistent, and they mainly see lowlights from 4-5yrs ago along with old narrative being tossed around by ignorant media.

 

21-9 during the streak

That is NOT stat padding. That’s doing what it takes to win.

 

The game was done with. I am ok with a player going for his stats if the game is over

 

“If others could do it, they would...”

 

Maybe the fact that he disappears and implodes at key points in the playoffs has something to do with it.

 

Stopped watching Steven A Smith and Max a while ago, then stopped watching some of the other national media shows, especially on ESPN that I know have pointless, nonsense discussions and debate that are provocative to increase ratings. Honestly, not missing anything. I suggest others do the same.

Appreciating beauty doesn't help their ratings, divisive discussions do. So, who is padding, again?

 

Every time I hear Rachel Nichols I think about the time she whined for Lebron to win “Best Player” because Harden was going to win MVP lolololololol