James Harden with 39 points last night in New Orleans, has scored 19,000 points in his NBA career, which is 62nd all time. Harden is 4 points behind Dale Ellis for 61st, 15 behind Reggie Theus for 60th and 59 points behind Rockets great, Russell Westbrook for 59th all time. AMAZING.
If Russ keeps averaging around 25 a game and harden is about 40 per game harden should pass Russell in what 4-5 games?
Didn‘t know Russ was ahead of Harden in scoring after these years, you learn sth new every day. I guess.
Russ has a year in the league on Harden and didn't have to come off the bench early on. Only reason he's still in front of James at this point. Russ should have a good chance to catch Mitch Richmond, who currently sits in 45th, this season and an outside chance at David Robinson in 44th. Harden, on the other hand, should make a push to catch Hal Greer in 40th. Larry Bird is 39th and may just be out of range for now. I'm saying this assuming (and knocking on all the wood I can find) that they stay healthy.
James Harden could pass Michael Jordan in scoring, media will say " Who is a better scorer Michael Jordan or James Harden" just to dismiss Harden every time. Michael Jordan had a great dribble, but not a Street crossover like James Harden has. James Harden is the most skilled Guard ever. James has Iverson crossover with Paul Pierce stepback, Ginobilli eurostep. Reggie Miller, leg kick out your leg draw a foul 3.
Barring catastrophic injury, Harden's pretty much a lock to eventually get into the NBA's top 10 career scorers. Might even get into the top 5, which means he'd have to pass MJ. and Kobe (or possibly Durant).
Harden is only 7,946 points behind the great Hakeem Olajuwon for 13th on the scoring list and 9,596 behind Shaquille O’Neal for 10th.
I just hope the guy wins a title (preferably with the Rockets) before he retires. I'd hate to spend the next 20 years reading social media posts saying, "Sure, he's a top 5 scorer all-time, but he wasn't a great player. And definitely not Hall of Fame material because he never lead his team to a title."
That whole logic is stupid. Charles Barkley, John Stockton and Karl Malone are all in the HALL OF FAME and have zero championships. Does that mean they are not HALL OF FAME worthy? Absolutely not. Unless you’re the casual average basketball fan. If rings mean something in HALL OF FAME discussions, then Mark Madsen qualifies before Malone, Stockton and Barkley.
I think Harden will play until he's around 38-40 years old, and will sustain this level of superstar play for 3-4 more years. It'll be tough, but I think by the end of his career, Harden could very possibly have 30,000+ career points.
Until Harden wins at least 2 rings, media and general NBA fans will be quick to dismiss Harden from any regular season accomplishments.
Quick - we need someone who passed their 7th grade algebra class when they discussed break even analysis!
Jordan played in an era when scoring over 100 was not common, scoring 85 or 90 was normal. Do you really think Russell WB is Oscar Robertson just because he stat stuffed in OKC? WB's WinShare wasn't that great and he has to thank his Usage rate. There are way more player out there gunning for stats than in the past. Harden and Jordan are up there in scoring, and Harden did things better but Jordan was better individual defender and had rings.....
Harden's one of the GOATs of this era but this video and it's comments gives you a good idea of the general perception of Harden from the media to a typical NBA fan: