if he did some superficial things differently such as frequently roaring at the crowd to pump himself up then he would get a lot more love
Except that he got us back in the game in the 3rd after trying to get everyone else going in the first half. Yesterday was not the day to gripe about his defense he defended Hood well even on that BS call at the end! It's a no win for James, if he passes too much "He need to get the ball out of his hands"If he shoots threes "Oh he's not aggressive enough going to the basket" If he goes to the hole and get's fouled "See, he's looking to get bailed out by the refs" and if all else fails we go to the always insightful and original "He doesn't play defense!EVER!!" We need Midol to sponsor Clutchfans this season.
It all starts and ends with Harden, and that's just a fact. When the team was unbelievably good throughout the season last year, it started and ended with him. Everyone else just fell in line and rose with the tide. Now, the same thing is happening this year. Just in reverse. If he was last season's real MVP, then he's definitely this season's MDP. Most Disappointing Player.
No, we need people to watch the game. Hood essentially neutralized Harden. Harden took 25 shots to get his 30 points along with 7 assists/8TO's. Hood took just 9 shots, got 23 points and 7 assists/2 TO's. This is a guy he should be dominating on both ends of the court. The whole point of Harden's existence is he gets lots of points per shot and makes plays. Last night he did neither. He's useless at everything else. It was a bad game for Harden. Call it an off night, call it whatever you want but don't act like he had an ok night and people are hounding him. If we need someone to get us going for a quarter and do nothing else but score, we'll pay Thornton the minimum to do it. You see when Harden is not getting lots of points per shot and not making plays, he's Marcus Thornton. It was a bad game for Harden against an easy opponent. No one decent was defending him, and their interior defense is nothing to write home about. We are in crisis mode right now, this is not the appropriate response of a star player to a crisis. He is sulking because they are blaming his defense for the problems. And they're partially right. They carried him defensively last season and he put forth some effort too. This year the team is just sick of collapsing on drives as Harden continuously looses his guy. If you've ever played any form of amateur basketball, you would understand that this doesn't last very long. Your teammates get very frustrated. Sooner or later, they don't get open for you and they don't cover for you.
Just watched the game, it's worse than I thought. I'm about ready to fly to Houston and protest outside the TC for the organization to bench this guy purely out of respect for the fans. I'm a guy who had Harden's back all of last season. I called him the MVP before and after they undeservingly awarded it to Curry. He has regressed mentally and he is stubbornly sulking. Digging his heels in the ground. I said it before, he probably feels emasculated by what happened with his girl and now he has to impose his will somewhere else. Not to mention his irritation about Curry winning it and then coming out guns a blazing this season. Instead of the opponent he's chosen his teammates. I'm so close to ready to endure 4-5 years of rebuild.
Rockets have to change their system if they want to compete for a title. Harden isnt a leader and dwight will be retired soon. This team has nothing else but young unproven players.
That you would think a guy who's from a bad area and has had a hard life apparently growing up would remember where he came from and work even harder than the average joe. Unfortunately, many men in these situations are usually African American and a lot of them fall into the trap of feeling entitled and or not being able to deal with fortune and fame.
Apparently scoring 30 points is now considered being neutralized. Can you say clueless? Please just stop watching games and don't show up to TC. Meanwhile, absolutely no comment from you on Dwight's terrible game against an "easy opponent" and an easy matchup against a scrub Jeff Withey.
Tmac cared about his ego, he held the team hostage on his health, always saying he's 'back' when he's not He also , like his fans, goes on talk shows and interviews saying stuff like ' i wish i could have played with shaq or duncan, or i wish you could switch places with paul pierce' Harden hasn't played PR warfare with the fans and organization, he's too busy partying with questionable people and forgetting to play defense PR wise, he's way better than Tmac
Fair enough - I am hopeful Harden matures, and becomes more of a leader - but I do think it will require a very good coach. DD
harden looked so disinterested at first but thankfully he activated t-mac mode and turned it up and brought home the win.
Harden's not in a no win situation. That is a MYTH The main gripe is his defense & overall effort. Yes he can score anytime he wants. But his effort levels are part of the reason we get behind just so ppl like you can say "but he got us back in the game". Yeah he got us back but we should've never been behind 13 to Utah in the first damn place. It's all about EFFORT. If he's having a off stretch then create open shots for teammates, rebound or play solid defense. If Harden's not hitting he quits playing, which is horrible imo. You could even hear it in Worrell's sarcasm last nite "James actually dribbled out of a double team that time, great James". There was a stretch where Harden had to turn the ball over 4 times (IN A ROW) doing that lazy pocket pass. He's our more talented player but he's not above showing effort.
22 year old Johnny Manziel has to wear a wig when he goes to play blackjack. He has issues they say. He plays football once a week. Harden goes pre and post games to clubs to get drunk on the daily. He is just normal.
