[NY's Alan Hahn] Is James Harden an entertaining player?

Haberstroh was let go from ESPN at the end of last season

 

Came here to say same. Not one mention of passes.

10 years ago you couldn't find one sportswriter who thought Ginobody's Game was boring, and it is the exact same game, but Harden is much, much better.

G-I-N-O-B-I-L-I

was yelled by nobody, right?

 

Or the Harlem Globtrotters.

 

Harden has always been very fun to watch for me, but then again, I prefer watching guys who rely on skill and craftiness over guys who mainly rely on athleticism

this has probably been Harden’s most entertaining season yet since he’s been more focused on just getting buckets instead of hunting for fouls...sure, sometimes it would be hard to watch him make 5 shots and 15 free throws in a game, but that’s not happening this year

How could anyone find the 37 he just dropped against NY boring? Harden is 1 of the smoothest players in the game. I love how can kill other teams while barely breaking into anything more than a light jog lol. He makes the game look so easy. His passing is ridiculous. He makes defenders look foolish with his crossovers, step backs, and Euro steps.

this game is when Harden became 1 of my top 5 favorite players



I used to watch as many OKC games as I could not because of Russ or KD, but because of him...he then became my favorite player after he joined the Rockets

 

I really enjoy watching Harden and i really dont enjoy watching westbrook.
I guess i just like winning basketball. shame on me

Edit: not entirely true - recently i enjoyed watching russell westbrook and the L's he stacked up.

 

Right? Forget the crafty scoring for a minute, the guy is an artist with the assists. Even if you hate his turnovers, from a pure aesthetic angle that shouldn't weigh on you. He makes passes other players wouldn't try and it leads to some crazy assists. Be it stupid-sick alley-oops to Capela or a three point barrage off a behind the back no look pass, how is that NOT entertaining?

Again, let's keep in mind though that these are often the same writers who will rail against the 3 point revolution.

 

I’m the same exact way with Curry and GS as a whole. I actually used to love watching Curry and that team play before the 14-15 season happened. Now I can’t stand them even tho GS objectively plays a beautiful brand of basketball.

 

This. James Harden toys with defenders like a cat. He decides what he is going to do and very seldom does anyone stop him. When he misses it is usually a difficult shot or just a miss. The spacing the Rockets have now only makes it more pronounced. You can tell when he is going to pull up for a long 3, everyone in the arena knows but it doesn't matter. I find that very entertaining. Further, he tends to score in clusters, dropping 6-8 points in a 2 minute span. It is very entertaining.

Daryl Morey isn't well liked by the a lot of media members and basketball lifers. Part of it is that he didn't play basketball in college and is running an NBA team, some of it is that he has no issues with promoting the Rockets or his team. From the people that work with him, I have only heard positive things... that he is very straight forward, open to new ideas and goes out of his way to prioritize family obligations for his employees. He doesn't speak down to people.

Someone else brought up Zach Lowe. He has been relentless in criticizing Daryl Morey over the years, has claimed he doesn't enjoy watching the Rockets and has taken a number of low blows at Harden over the last 4-5 years. A lot of voters are looking for a reason not to vote for James Harden and we saw it last year and it will happen this year. James Harden and the Rockets will need to be clearly better than everyone else for him to win the damn award.

As for Morey, he isn't going to get any love until the Rockets win a title. I remember Greg Popovich getting treated like **** by the media until the Spurs asserted themselves over the Lakers.

 

In truth, Harden is way more fun to watch than Durant, who doesn't do a whole lot other than just getting buckets.

The whole 'Harden is not entertaining' thing is overblown and based on some people's hate for Harden's tendency to look for fouls - which in the past may have been justified - but if you still think Harden doesn't have a neat game in year 2017, you're just not paying attention.

 

because step back, euro steps, threes and risky circus assists alone, even if player believes earth is flat or thinks women should have right to vote, it should be enough for any basketball fan to want pay to see it.

i think only thing a player can do to make me want to change the channel, beside play badly, is that ryan anderson move, when he pump fakes to get his man in the air and then jump forward into him to get to the line. but that happens so rarely, it wasnt really worth a mention

 

When your team sucks you try to find a way to be "entertained" as opposed to them potentially winning.

Teams that are good are focused on one thing (and one thing only) and that's WINNING.

 

I just don’t understand how somebody could watch Harden do this to his team and think it’s boring



if the only 2 times I had watched Harden closely this season were when he played the Knicks like Hahn then he would look like 1 of the most entertaining players in the league to me

sh*t, the 36 he dropped against the Knicks in preseason which Hahn should’ve been able to watch closely as well was highly entertaining too...he toyed with them

 

Hard to say you really like basketball if you don't find one of the greatest and most efficient scorers in the history of the sport "entertaining"

 

Hm hope he like crack rock

 

This, along with the no-defense Youtube video, are why Harden will A) never be liked and B) never win MVP

 

I disagree with your take on Zach Lowe. I'm not familiar with his older body of work, but from what I've seen from him recently, he's been more than fair to Harden and the Rockets in general. Some people hate on him because he voted Kawhi over Harden for MVP last year, but that was a reasonable vote in my book. Much more reasonable than voting for Westbrook, at least.

 

Hahn is a hater, u can tell he has an agenda...man, stop lying to yourself and be objective

“I’ve only watched Harden closely this year when he’s played the Knicks, and he’s boring”







How tf is that boring??

 

the media hates Harden, because its hard to argue steph as a top 20 player all-time, when he is not even putting up better numbers than a player taken in the same draft as him

 

New Yorkers gonna New York.

 

Who the hell thinks John Wall is some amazingly entertaining basketball player? That guy isn't even in Eric Gordon's class, let alone Harden's rarefied orbit. Harden is freaking unstoppable. "Leading the league in points and assists? Eh, boring."

I think it's mostly because Harden rarely dunks. Whatever. They called Tim Duncan boring, too, but eventually he got his respect.