Dan Patrick Show: 'Ball hog' label unfair to James Harden

Kobe was labeled a ballhog and rightfully so.

Harden is averaging ~9 assists per game...
Soooooooooooooooo ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

if the team is fully healthy then sure, but with what we’re trotting our right now this is what needs to be done...Colin needs to get a clue

 

Team is in desperate need of help if we want to make noise in the post season. The only Rocket (not including Green) thats shown consistency from 3 was House..... Really wished we could have secured his deal. With that said, we match up better against GSW defensively once cappella and paul are back than last year but will need our wings to catch fire.

 

MDA would rather his first option be the second and third option when your fifth best guy is the next best player.

Meanwhile, these goons are trying to figure harden out while he's painting his own Narrative

 

im sure harden misses CAPELA. hes the only one who can catch those dangerous pass. he seems to really like those fancy high risk high reward play. if his teammates can do what capela can or atleast hit open shots harden would probably have more assists than points on certain nights. he loves passing to his teammates especially last season. first couple of play he always creates play for others before taking a shot himself. like hes testing whos hot right off the bat. so i dont get why they calling him a ballhog. its not like his mindset ill take all the shots and you just watch there. hes more okay lets test first who wakes up on fire today. NO ONE? okay im gonna do my thing. he was so proud ego was making his shot that he tweets about it.

 

You're probably not watching that much media. Despite being 4th in assists, The "ball hog" label is definitely taking hold. The unassisted stat is now being bandied about way too much. After 61 in the Garden, people the next day were saying they don't like the Rockets brand of basketball because it's only Harden.

I find it hilarious because the media celebrated Kobe when he famously told a ref that he wasn't passing to anyone. I guess people would like it better if players passed it to Harden to get his shot off instead of him Isoing, which is kind of strange.

 

That guy is an idiot. Double standards for days. This dude was a ridiculously huge Westbrook fan in past seasons. Westbrook is the epitome of selfish ball that is bad for your team.

 

Harden takes a ton of shots to win a game = ball hog

Harden doesn't take a ton of shots = choker, not stepping up to the plate.

See, it is EASY to take a position when you ALREADY HAVE YOUR MIND MADE UP.

Are people looking for and searching for "clarity?" (they should be). Or are they looking for assertions that align with their ALREADY MADE UP OPINION in which they aren't interested in changing their mind. (which is the vast majority of the world today.)

 

that's pretty much Harden's rep according to other "nba fans" on espn.. besides being a ball hog, there's also "volume shooter", help out by the refs all the time, flopper, blah blah blah

 

People on YT comments or other comment sections who say those things, are either not watching the games or are sheep. I'm going to go with sheep, because it's so easy to go along with what everyone else is saying.

To most fans, it doesn't matter if you throw in stats or analysis. Their minds won't change.

 

Ball hog. *sigh*

Let's look at pure data never watching James Harden or the Rockets play a single minute this season. James Harden is 4th in the league in assists.

Let's add the tiniest sliver of context. Most of the people James Harden passes the ball to cannot complete the shot after Harden's attempted assist. Still 4th in the league.

Now, let's say someone actually watched a recent Rockets game. HE. HAS. NOBODY. Gordon sometimes. A few others sporadically. And the who team is 100% behind him having the ball. How do I know? 1) They give him the ball 100% of the time if possible. 2) Look how lost, whimpering, slow, stalling, and pathetic the team looks when Harden is NOT on the court. They're counting every second before he comes back in and saves them from themselves.

Ball magnet is the right term. Like magnetism, it's a thing that just happens. Especially when the rest of your team has the same pole as the ball and is repelling it back to you as strongly as possible.

 

harden really should've been passing the ball more to gary clark and james nunnally and let them handle the ball create their own shots.

 

even the avid nba fans who still b**** to me about harden concoct narratives like "the new nba allows traveling, even giannis gets away with it, but harden is just to the far extreme probably 1/3 of his points come off travels"

 

Ball hog or not who gives a ****, outside of Gordon and him everyone else is playing on g league level.

 

Harden is #81 all-time in assists. That's pretty good.

 

Agreed, the only piece of **** that I have heard call him that is Colin Cowturd.

 

The ball hog label is now here. I think it’s accurate at his current level but if you’re going to throw that out there you better put a massive qualifier with it. Because James, despite dominating the basketball is quite willing to make passes to his teammates. He’s been an MVP or MVP candidate for the last 4 years on the back of being a great facilitatior and scorer. He hasn’t changed. He’s just gotten better.

 

Nah man. To be honest I think you watch a lot of anti-Rockets media and have a particular paranoia about Rockets related news. Am I right?

James Harden being seen as a ball hog - as in a player who is taking shots away from his teammates just for the purpose of hogging the ball and to the detriment of the team - is not an NBA topic. It's been mildly mentioned by 1 or 2 people, which is a totally insignificant amount of discussion about it.

In truth what's happening is that those 1 or 2 people would like it to be a topic, so they fake some outrage so that you and I send some outrage into the social space and that's how these fake narratives catch fire.

Let's not feed into it. They are going to try, but it's just a sad attempt by people who are bitter that Harden put together a historic streak just as they were beating the drums of his character assassination.

Anyone who watches a game knows, Harden is historically elite at making the correct play.

 

I'm offended. I watch and read what is available. I watch and read enough to know who has an anti-Rockets bias. It isn't paranoia (again, I'm offended), I'm paying attention.