[Grantland] The Irritation Game: How James Harden and the Rockets Undid LeBron and the Cavs

wow grantland called harden a fkboy? clearly they dunno what a **** boy is. if they cant see that harden gets calls cuz he's able to sick his arms out while driving, daring defenders to swipe at the ball, and still finish, then they are definitely the **** boys. do they still think he doesnt play defense too? they just proved they aint ****. bron nut huggers

 

i understand haren, flopper, douchebag, but **** boy? they shouldnt even be using that word from now on. they dunno what it means. stick to flopper and haren, stop trying to be cool

 

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This should be our entrance theme.

 

if we get into another scrap nationally we should def pull it out at least a few times.

just embrace it, it's not going anywhere.

no one is even talking about how well ariza guarded lebron, they're stuck on the "villains" narrative. bottom line, this team is crazy talented and we'll go hard against anyone.

*kanye voice* if they hate let 'em hate and watch the wins pile up

 

I have no problem with anyone casting Harden's kick in a bad light. It wasn't a good thing to do.

However, he was looking at the floor, and it was a reaction to use his foot to keep someone away from him.

No matter what, it wasn't worse than Lebron pinning Beverley down to the ground. That move happened before Harden's "kick". That move was definitely intentional.

Also to say LBJ was the best player on the floor yesterday is ridiculous. He wasn't, and while he was good, he is also greatly responsible for the Cavs loss, and I don't just mean missing FTs.

At the start of the game Mosgov seemed unstoppable in the paint. Then LBJ stopped getting him the ball. He didn't pass very much at all. Not going to Mosgov cost the team as much as missing the FT's and that wasn't just poor execution, it was poor decision making and selfish basketball.

Yet nobody talks about any of that. They ignore LBJ's bullying, and selfish play, while focusing only on Harden's poor decision. It's not balanced coverage, and isn't even realistic. But it's the media. It's what they do.

Oh well

 

Did anyone else think the article ended prematurely? It just kind of stopped all of a sudden.

 

We're the new Bad Boys. Nothing we can do about it. The national media, and particularly Grantkand, have closed the book on our story.

Time to stick it to them in the ultimate Bad Boy fashion.

 

Rockets = polished but the the cavs are "still figuring it out". Brilliant. Down DH12, working in Smith, Corey, just got back our PG, we are polished now.

 

We all knew this narrative was brewing. It is easy to hate Houston and view Houston as a villain. Just look at the players we have on our team and their perception around the league.

James Harden: Master Flopper with a boring style of play. So greedy that he destroyed a potential dynasty in OKC. Can't play a lick of defense because he doesn't care. Blah blah blah

Dwight Howard: Cry baby, false tough guy. He smiles too much to actually care about basketball. He spurned Kobe and the Lakers. Blah blah blah

Josh Smith: So bad that SVG paid for him to leave. Inefficient shot taker with so conscious. Blah blah blah

Patrick Beverley: The NBA pest and who everyone loves to hate (even Rockets fans recently). Ruined OKC's 2013 championship run for his dirty play on Westbrook. Blah blah blah

Jason Terry: Didn't report to Sacramento and said crap about them not being good. Blah blah blah

Terrence Jones: Hobo stomper Blah blah blah

So on and so forth.

But I'll take us being a villain. It can be fun to be bad, embrace it. Us being villains signals that we are a threat to be a real contender.

 

Wait, we're the villains? Yikes, the sports media is messed up. Well, we knew that, but damn this is a terribly-written article. I'd suggest that Jason Concepcion apply his talent somewhere more appropriate to his level, but a high school newspaper would never accept a word like "****boi" in an article. Jason, I bet your boss with the gray hair and crazily-intense eyes thinks completely opposite of you.

 

I'm willing to bet that his boss with the gray hair is Bill Simmons, who would have him fired for complimenting Houston in any manner other than backhanded fashion.

 

Bring on the hate. The last time a Rockets team was hated this much was when we mushroom-stamped the Knicks in the NBA Finals, and the entire media collectively tried to give us the finger. I loved seeing how butthurt they were then, and I'm loving it even more now.

 

I love it. I just hope the refs don't resort to the fukery they did against Cleveland in the postseason. They seem to target teams who are villains and call ticky tack fouls against them. Let's us live. Remember that phantom technical against Dwight last year? That's my point

 

I get told I post Too much Palpatine but I look ever where else and it seems the deflector shields are fully Operational.

 

Bill Simmons is actually pretty partial to Houston. He isn't a Dwight fan, but loves Harden, loves Morey, etc.

The real Grantland Rockets haters are guys like Andrew Sharp and Chris Ryan.

 

Yeah not so sure about that. He said he hates watching Houston and we are the most boring team.

 

Zach Lowe is also pretty down on the Rockets, often mentioning their "boring" style. He's more diplomatic in how he goes about it, but the way he talks you'd think the Rockets were shooting free throws on every other play. Simmons seems to have been fairly quiet about the Rockets lately. At least I don't recall him doing too many Dork Elvis jokes recently.

 

Add terrible tipper to Terrence Jones. Dude straight stiffed me.

 

Whoa! When did this happen and how did I miss it?