The media agenda regarding James Harden's "defense"

Yes because that's all he's done this year, one good game.

 

Man you guys have no idea. I'm living in OKC and the radio guys here just blast on Harden non-stop because they refuse to admit they lost that trade. They talk about his defense any time his name comes up, and even in the midst of his MVP caliber season last year they would refuse to acknowledge his accomplishments and just say that he had a bad game for every good one.

 

3/6/16

Harden
154 ORtg
116 DRtg
38 Net Rtg
Beat one of the hottest teams at home.
Playing 2nd night of a back to back.

Curry
84 ORtg
115 DRtg
-31 Net Rtg
Lost to one of the worst teams in the NBA.
Had 2 days rest.



When the guy has a spectacular night, give him his props. That's all. Definitely don't marginalize his spectacular game by trolling up 1 bad defensive possession.

 

I could have worded it better but I just cant edit posts after I already send them. No he couldn't reach because he had foul trouble (4 fouls not 5) with 2:42 left in the game. If anybody actually believe Harden did not play defense this game they only saw that clip and not the game.

 

They aren't the undisputed best players at their position

 

You don't see Kobe or Duncan do it that badly. If he had 5 fouls it might be understandable though.

Regardless - his defense is awful.

 

I'm sorry.

 

the point isn't one game, or Harden versus Curry, or trolling up 1 bad defensive possession. The OP started a thread about some alleged "MEDIA AGENDA" against Harden. I don't think the ESPN cherry picking of that one possession proves a media agenda, but I also think that if someone wanted to, they could find plenty of other examples of Harden "resting" on defense, as someone put it, without having either to cherry pick or to look very long. Harden is easy to pick on because he does this so much. This is not an isolated "trolling up" of "1 bad possession." This is a career trend that is really disturbing. It will keep him from being considered a truly great player. And it's largely his own fault.

 

There were multiple outlets on this -> ESPN picked this up from deadspin.

Memes perpetuate themselves.

For whatever reason, LeBron, who has just as many vine-worthy highlights, doesn't have a "LeBron doesn't play D' meme that is as powerful even though he clearly takes plays off (and thank god he does, like Harden he carries a crushign burden on offense)

 

I think that truly is the point though. The OP's conviction to post this today was in reference to this 1 game, and this 1 play ESPN highlighted. And they absolutely succeeded in what they sought out to do. Think about it. If even the GARM is this divided, imagine how skewed the opinions are on the national level or on the great twittersphere. You don't really have to imagine, because you can see the hater parade in the mentions.

We can't even talk about a historically amazing performance of 40 pts, 14 assists with only 1 turnover, because now we are being rope-a-doped into reviewing Harden's entire season or career as a defender. It's classic bait & switch, and look how wonderfully effective it is even here among Rockets fans.

I brought in Curry's stats for Sunday to show how Curry's defense last night was about half a frog hair in distance from Harden's defense last night. 115 to 116 in DRtg. But the story on Curry today is "oh poor baby. are you okay? what went wrong? there there it's okay, our sweet prince."(with ESPN petting his head)

 

In the post game press conference JBB said he told Harden to make sure he didnt foul out.

Since you're a die hard Rox fan I'm sure you heard this? Correct?

 

I wasn't really talking about whether or not he should have been MVP last year. My point is, for someone who is just as capable of putting up an out-of-this-world offensive night as any of the other elite players in the league right now, he doesn't get the play that others get, compared that to the play that he gets for defensive lapses.

Do you really believe that ESPN cares whether a player has a balanced game on both sides of the court? They go with what gets them clicks.

I'm not saying that it's because they don't want Harden to be successful personally. Nevertheless, they have a motive (read: "agenda") to highlight James' defensive mistakes. ESPN realizes that James' defensive mistakes are viral. They'd rather run with that than the things he does well because it gets them more traffic.

 

Lebron dealt with the chocker hate and he is one of the best of all time.


Harden can deal with this. No need to stick up for him.

 

Totally agree with you Zig...

If he played defense then there wouldn't be a need or a question of a media agenda.

T_Man

 

So we're all getting pissed because Harden didn't leave his man open in the corner for 3?

 

No, that he didn't take a 5th foul.

 

100% disagree. After the lowlight video there is nothing he can do outside of making the all defensive team to prove to people that he's not the worst defender in the league. Literally nothing. The man was already hated because he was a "flopper" and then they went ahead and gave people a different more convenient truth. He is not a great defender. He's an average defender. You could put together a lowlight defensive reel for any player in the league. Have their been games where he's given up? Absolutely. But this narrative that he "doesn't play defense" because of the one clip that gets circulated for every 5 games because people are watching him like a hawk is ridiculous. James Harden cares about winning. This team wouldn't win if he didn't put them on his back every other game. He's an average defender with a huge offensive workload on a bad defensive team.

 

Yea, the effort and demeanor are worse than the play itself, I've actually never seen someone so lackluster and have as many lapses as him. That being said, like I stated in my last post...dude had a killer stat-line and deserves his dues before the media starts crapping on him.

 

Aside from Zach Lowe , Bleacher Report is so much better than ESPN. Some of the best mainstream sports writing on the web.