ESPN’s Royce Young: Harden Is Ruining Pro Sports/Stepback Should Be Banned

What was the quote?

 

They asked him for an ultra hot lava take and he said an ultra hot take.

Everyone else on the show said they didn’t care because everyone does it.

They spent 30 seconds on it.

ClutchFans with the FOX news level outrages without context

 

people mad bc they can't stop it lmao

 

Houston's James Harden: Royce Young is ruining journalism/should be banned from covering ALL sports

 

This is by far the most annoying narrative
To undermine Victor's game and efforts so . ..

Rocket River

 

Thanks for the context.

 

This is the national narrative taking hold. If you watched the Cavs/Pacers series, the broadcasters flat out said that watching Westbrook every day made Oladipo the player he is now.

 

I think there are two factors that causeses all this vitriol towards him.

1) Being traded away from OKC - the initial spin was pushed out by OKC was that he wanted more money so their hand was forced to trade him. They made him look like the bad guy. They got their version out first and so thats the version everyone remembers. By the time Harden came around and give his side of the story and the truth was revealed that OKC gave him an ultimatum to decide his future in under what 3-4 hours it was too late. Harden was the greedy guy who wanted more money that blew up the league's darling team with WB, KD and him. Granted that the league loved them as a small market team that was doing it right. They were supposed to be the team the league would point to when people claimed the league was in it for the big markets. Hell people today still feel Harden leaving was the first domino for breaking up that team. OKC could have kept Harden and dealt him anytime after the season but they did not.

2) Leaving Nike for Adidas. This is probably the bigger factor. You do not see elite players switching shoes companies that often, and even rarer to see them leave Nike for another shoe company. The last time I remember a player of Harden's magnitude switching companies was Kobe when he left Adidas to go to NIKE. (and that too was after all the colorado stuff so Adidas wasnt too eager to keep him at the time). Nike has a huge hand in everything the league does and this was even before they became the league's official apparel partner this season. I would not be surprised at all if they have a team specifically created to lower Harden's image to push down his sales and in return boost their own. There were plenty of rumors swirling around that KD going to GS was also pushed by Nike to lower Curry's/UA's hold in the Bay Area market. I read a few things that Nike is also wanting Kawhi to move to a larger market too which may have had some influence on him sitting out this season.

IMO the Nike factor is the bigger factor and its a shame that a company that already has some of the largest names in the game will push down other players (curry/harden) to prop up their own stars instead of just pushing their own stars. Curry at least was signed by UA when he was relatively a smaller star (not the MVP, HOF he became). Harden's situation was worse because he left Nike to become the face of Adidas. Nike is acting like the scorned girlfriend in this situation.



I can't remember the last time a player was so scrutinized for the moves he does or the defense he doesnt play as much as Harden. The defense video was a joke. He was never a great defender no doubt, but he isn't as bad as that video made him out to be. Anyone who has watched him the last two season know he is a really good post defender, an average on the ball perimeter defender and a poor off the ball defender. He has gotten better this year than last year but he isn't the worst defender in the league. His 3pt fouls last season (which i agree was kind of 'cheap' but a foul nonetheless, I will not punish a player for taking advantage of the rules) and now its the step back jumper, the majority of which are perfectly legal. Harden has been doing that step back for years now and its never been an issue, but its like they are running out of things to criticize him on so they found something new. They created the rules to stop him, but he still lead the league in scoring and FTAs this year. Why? Because he is that damn good and the majority of his fouls are legitimate fouls as he is attacking the basket. He does bait defenders into fouling him, but again this is a skill to score just like finding different ways to get open for an open shot. He is making defenders play honest, because when they do he is nearly unstoppable.

Next year watch they'll say something about how none of these should really count because he is left handed and has a natural advantage in a league where majority are right handed.

 

Because that’s what Oladipo has been TELLING EVERYONE!!

Oladipo said Russ’ influence is the #1 reason for his success this year.

This place is beginning to turn into an echo chamber

 

IMO, if Harden was with the Lakers or Knicks carrying them by himself to 55 wins or contending with another superstar beside him their respective cities and fanbase, their local and national media would absolutely love him.

 

I saw that and just rolled my eyes

Rocket River

 

The shoe stuff is interesting. Hard to get a feel how much of that is causing this. Not sure I buy all of that, but I am willing to consider it.

Personally, I feel the thing that hurts Harden the most is the "aesthetics" of how he plays. He is not a dunker. He is not a "mean face" maker. And he is forever branded as a poor defensive player (thus not a complete player). Harden is viewed as a CHEATER that doesn't fairly earn his points. And because of his introvert nature, he is looked at as a mediocre team leader that doesnt care.

Those OPTICS get bantered about by ESPN "talking heads" and "influencers" and then they go from opinion to fact.

None of this will change until Harden wins a championship and the "influencers" start to talk about a new narrative for him. BUT, even then, haters will have already made up their mind on the original optics.

We are all sensitive to the Harden hate as Rockets fans, but taking a step back, I can't remember a "super star" of his nature that gets thrown as many "yeah buts" as Harden.

 

All you need to know about whether or not Oladipo "learned from Master Westbrook" was that the Thunder thought so little of him they traded him away for a 1 year rental of Paul George. If Oladipo did make himself into an All-Star as the disciple of Westbrook, certainly no one on OKC knew about it. Or they would've just kept him.

 

So this is the newest narrative to try and discredit Harden?

Doesn't matter,this one isn't going anywhere. The league knows they can't start enforcing all borderline travels now, they've long since let that genie out of the bottle.

 

How did Ethan from the Warriors get fired but not this bum?

 

You must not understand what a hot take is.