The Salt Lake Tribune: "I wish Harden wasn't leading for MVP."

Man some of you are way too sensitive. I think it’s high praise honestly. Imagine this were 1999 and Feigen not only admitted Malone was MVP but also had to defend his decision as to why? I just can’t.

 

The tides are predictable - and unstoppable
A freight train at full speed is pretty predictable if you believe in tracks, and it's pretty unstoppable
The sun rise is also predictable, and I have yet to see someone stop it.

Who cares if James Harden is predictable or boring or whatever. We all know the only series worth watching come May is Warriors Rockets.

 

I might be wrong because of ignorance, but I have never heard the Salt Lake Tribune saying that they wished Lebron, Stephen Curry, Durant or even Westbrook weren't in the lead for MVP.

 

If you are rooting for the opposing team yeah I don’t blame you for not liking watching Harden destroy your team. I didn’t enjoy watching what Andrew Luck did to the Texans defense today either.

The real issue is the “media” folks who don’t present their honest fan standpoint when they obviously root for teams or against others but claim to be unbiased. If they were honest about who they root for, it makes them take a less serious take on who is doing well that they don’t like.

Someone like Michelle Beadle can say god I hate the Rockets and Harden but the dude is destroying the league right now and while I wish Demar Derozen was the leading candidate it pains me to say Harden is probably the front runner.

Be honest and stop taking your “non-bias” take so f-ing serious when we all know you have a rooting interest or you wouldn’t cover the sport.

I just think that’s what is happening with Harden. People outside of Houston rooting for the Rockets is probably no-one and that’s okay... just be honest about who you like and then be honest about the other guy.

 

"James Harden is either going to drive, shoot or pass to one of the other four players on the floor...

or bind with hydrogen and go NUCLEAR... like he did on the Warriors. SO PREDICTABLE!"

 

People don't even talk about his euro step anymore

 

Z-Dog ended up being the most level-headed, rational, and gracious Jazz fan. Salt Lake Tribune could learn a lot from him.

 

This is actually a compliment. Giving respect to your enemy. He's admitting Harden is MVP even though he doesnt like him.

 

To be fair, it is pretty predictable. He's going to score 40+ points.

 

I bet they wish that Harden played more like Ricky Rubio.

 

The very next sentence says "But it’s also superlative. The truth of the matter is that he’s been the best player in the league again this season."

The victimhood complex here on behalf of Harden is amazing. Yesterday I heard Jim Rome gushing about Harden, saying "just hand him the MVP trophy right now." But all some people want to hear is the negative stuff, and all they want to do is blame the media. Just enjoy having the MVP on the Rockets. These are good times.

 

Know what else is predictable? Donovan Mitchell's inefficiency.

Also predictable, Curry running around screens to hit 3pt shots.

Also predictable, Giannis throwing down dunks.

Also predictable, LeBron attacking the basket.

Also predictable, KD hitting mid range jumpers.

Predictable.

 

The guy writes an article praising harden saying he is currently mvp of the league and you decide to nitpick two sentences out of the entire article. Its like no one is allowed to criticize the rockets whatsoever or u guys will cry about it. I hate to break it to you but Not everyone on this planet is a rockets fan and the writer clearly isnt one, yet he still admits that harden is the best player in the league even though his antics piss him off. Seriously, get a ****in grip people.

 

The point is it's a completely shallow, empty, and trite criticism that gets replayed over and over, and it's the correlated to a bigger problem with Harden. This irrational hate of his game is why clearly inferior players in every way get fewer votes than him for the ASG, and probably related to why the Rockets get screwed by the likes of Scott Foster et al... The author is giving him praise because he has no choice. no matter how much you hate Harden, no one can reasonably deny he is at MINIMUM a top two MVP candidate right now.

People have these misconceptions of what makes Harden good, and it seems to cloud the lens they use to watch him. I don't know how any objective fan of the game of basketball can NOT enjoy watching Harden's handles, his game-breakingly devastating step back three (especially if they like Curry), his unbelievable court vision, his P&R oops to Clint, his impeccable strength and balance when finishing at the basket, his hesitation moves... Even if he does draw a cheap foul every now and then (a problem that's grossly exaggerated by haters since every star does it to some extent).

It's a petty way to discount Harden's game, and the rest of the article is an underhanded compliment that he couldn't avoid giving.

No one would have an issue if it was a legitimate, quantifiable criticism, but Clutch's sarcastic post earlier was actually a 100% accurate characterization of the author's nonsense...

 

Hardwoodparoxysm on Twitter went on a rant defending harden today and said he is underrated passer and he thinks the best in the league. I think the people that actually watch a lot of hardens games know he's an amazing g passer

 

Harden IS a great passer, but all those crazy pass attempts are also why he turns it over so much. His vision is as good as anyone I've seen, and his creativity is on point... but some times he gets overambitious and/or gets lazy (antonyms, I know), and has unforced turnovers on passes.

... On the other hand, I've seen some interesting analytics indicating that the risk/reward trade off may often be worth it for the kinds of passes Harden attempts. When he connects on some of those over-ambitious attempts to Clint, for example, it's a near-guaranteed two points.

 

Those two highlighted comments sandwiched by some unbelievable stats and figures.

Classic

 

Jazz fans are probably the worst fans in any sports in the US. Classless sh*tbags.

 

I hope I never achieve top status and mastery of all aspects of a complicated, wide-ranging set of skills, because, more than anything in life, I fear being being predictable, formulaic, and exploitative.