Lol there you go again. You have nothing to say that proves me incorrect. Winning rings are soo subjective and even with Shaq and Gasol the refs gifted Kobe 3 out of his five rings. While Harden plays against 4 all stars and 3 refs by himself each year in the playoffs and puts up better numbers. Yet he's labeled a choker and Kobe is a champion. A good example of how the media sways you towards Kobe is the clutch factor. Everyone seems to believe Kobe was clutch yet he shot like 30% on go ahead and game tying shots. That is the definition of unclutch but if all you watch are the highlights of him making you think dang he's clutch. But no one has missed more of them than Kobe. On the flip side Lebron didn't play for Lakers wasn't always loved by media. They label him unclutch cuz he passes to open teammates. Yet the dude has made the most game winning and tying buckets in playoff history and shoots over 50% doing it. Go figure. Stop being blinded by fake news. I compare Kobe is closer Westbrook than Harden. You can't match that heart and drive and will to win. But efficiency wise he's on WB level.
I remember your stance on the FO and harden being drastically different. I think you changed after the SA game 6. I rarely criticized harden prior to last year, was a pretty staunch defender of him outside this forum
I’m not in this feud and wouldn’t put Harden in the same sentence as Kobe simply because he has zero rings and at the end of the day that’s what NBA careers are judged on, even if I believe that is unfair because it doesn’t necessarily reflect skill level and circumstances. It is what it is; I accept it’s the public narrative. But it does undoubtedly blind people from certain realities and facts. Harden’s game 6 against the Spurs is very very similar to Kobe’s game 7 against the Suns. He air balled several key attempts in the playoffs against the Jazz I believe when he was young. Again, he’s won 5 rings so that sh*t doesn’t matter. But it did exist. And the criticism Harden gets for the OKC finals is absurd; since when is a sixth man responsible for being abysmal when the whole team performed rather poorly, him being the youngest, going up against three of the top 10 players in the league with the Lebron Wade Bosh super team coming off the most disappointing finals in history. To be clear, I would never say Harden is Kobe (I think that’s what someone was claiming, not going to investigate someone else’s feud). The rings separates legends from stars. But Harden’s deficiencies also apply to legends. And I don’t think anyone could have done better in going up against the KD Warriors in that conference finals.
Well...it deserved to be drastically different. Morey has always been great, and back then, Harden was still coming up as a star. He had room to grow, especially when at the time he was the only star on the team, so yes while SA Game 6 was miserable, I defended him nonetheless. I think I was justified in doing so because his 2018 season was terrific and he should have won a ring. 2019 was up and down, but at the end of the day he carried the team on his back while the team was ravaged with injuries, so once again, I think he didn't deserve near the criticism he was getting. This past year, with him pushing for the Westbrook trade, having a 2 month stretch of the worst basketball of his career, once again flaming out of the playoffs, and now (reportedly) upset with the direction of the team, I cannot defend that. Still a great player and I'm glad he's still with us, but I've accepted he won't win a ring in Houston and his style of play is not conducive to winning at the highest level. He's 31 now and that stuff just isn't changing much, I don't think. That's okay. He is still comfortably the 2nd best Rocket ever. The reality is that it's hard to really support anything going on with the Rockets right now because at the end of the day, Tilman is the owner, and we will never compete with that man involved with the organization. He's ruined a great franchise in a matter of 2 years. It's simply a depressing reality.
Posting this for what Chris says about D'Antoni and its effect on Harden. Starts at the 1:15 mark or so. "D'Antoni created a monster in James Harden" Perhaps what we see in Harden now was shaped by D'Antoni?
Why do you keep saying something that isnt true? Like this is completely false. He was one of the best players in the playoffs. This is just straight up nonsense.
As you said winning rings is subjective, we all can agree on that but it is still the highest one can achieve within the NBA. Both Kobe and Lebron are half a tier or one tier above Harden in terms of execution down the stretch in the Playoffs. Plus they had better overall teams for sure and the refs were virtually their fans. Kobe is a chucker, he is supposed to be a chucker, he is a 'Chucking errrm Shooting guard'. 30% clutch shots, pretty good, I thought it was worse because of how many fadeaways that dude chucked up. RIP KB24. His game is pretty simple, score at will, all the other stats are supporting his scoring. Then he got pretty easy options, dump it to Shaq, Top 6 Alltime Great, kick it out to Derek Fisher, Robert Horry, both Alltime great clutch shooters. Lebron got the cerebral 'killer instinct' tag. Dude knows exactly where his teammates are, and where he can get a high quality shot up, he is so strong and powerful that half of his constested shots, he just overpowers or bullies his shots into 'good shots'. Only in his last 3 or 4 years did he somehow master the 'Fadeaway' and Step back.
A 3 time scoring champ, led NBA in assists and not only MVP winner but perennial MVP candidate??? If D'Antoni was responsible for that then Rockets fans everywhere need to thank him for creating such a monster. But I think Harden's work ethic and talent is deserving of just a little bit of credit. But Broussard has sauces so what do I know.
Kobe took those shots in close games. Harden walks around and stands content that the defender is denying him the ball. He'll do his shove and arm wrestling battle bit will not move his feet. Maybe get an offensive foul called his way too. To people who war h Harden in close playoffs games in the 4th, it creates such a bad impression of him.
Don't disagree. But just cuz you want to shoot the last shot doesn't make you a better player. I hate Harden late game. It's his biggest weakness and why the media doesn't give him the respect he deserves. But he's such a better scorer and facilitator for the other 40 minutes of the game he's still the better player.
James was sublime in the playoffs this year. It’s crazy to see people knocking him for anything. Mainly narrative driven casuals...
