I was surprised when I heard that no one had ever had those stats before. I would think that Wilt, the season he decided that he was going to lead the league in assists (and did), would have had at least one comparable game. I haven't looked it up. Of course, stats weren't kept like they are today. Blocks weren't recorded, for example. I'm not bringing that up to denigrate Harden's accomplishment, of course. Far from it!
One of the greatest stat lines in NBA history. We are trully blessed to have this guy suit up in a Rockets uniform on a nightly basis.
Assists were recorded back then, hence Big Os triple doubles. It's all there for Elias Sports Bureau to include in these tweets. So we can be confident this has never been done before. That said, the Game Finder query engine at Basketball-reference doesn't return game-based, assist numbers prior to 1981 for whatever reason. I think that's just because they have the newspaper boxscores back then just showed assist leaders per game and not all individual player stats.
Actually maybe you missed it, he even jumped into the halftime show and pulled out some legendary dance moves before putting his jersey back on to complete the in-game performance. He did everything.
Some of you are ridiculous. There's no denying or downplaying it- Harden's game last night was one of the games ever. He accomplished something that has never been done ever. Wilt didn't do it. MJ didn't. Hakeem didn't. Kobe didn't. LeBron hasn't. It was historical night. Someone could say all sorts of "yeah but..." statements. It was against the Knicks and they aren't very good. And they had several players injured. Except.. So what? All of those players mentioned earlier had long careers including games against bad teams with injured players and they still didn't accomplish what Harden did. That isn't saying Harden is better than those players, although it does showcase how amazing and versatile he is (as if we needed any reminder?). It was an amazing, historical game and there really isn't anything that anyone can say to take away from that
I was at the game. He actually did some nifty dancing during pregame layup drills. I was pointing out to Naismith. I usually don't arrive early to games, so someone else will have to say how normal that is, but he was really loose looking and shaking his booty and swinging his arms to the TC music
Does he do it exactly like Durant? We can never win a championship unless Harden dances exactly like Warriors or Cavs players. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y72HK5vLB3k/Uv7mklPG7HI/AAAAAAAACis/QiwehJTvH1w/s1600/1.gif Harden has actually been dancing a lot recently. I think once the MVP talk started ramping up he decided to just lock in and have fun, and it's working.
It's strange. Not at all to diminish Harden's historic performance... Maybe it's all the free throw, or all the pull-up 3's with ease. #-wise, amazing performance. Maybe because I watched the NY broadcast with no audio. But when I watched live on TV, I didn't get the feeling of a historic moment. I got that when watching Dream dominating both sides of the court. There was no stopping him with his array amazing moves and no one was scoring inside. Similarly I got that when watching Duncan doing something similar in one of the playoff game. Maybe I was more of a newbie fan at the time, raw, and took think differently. Just a different feeling.
In all honesty, it's one of those ways numbers and stats can "fudge" reality to a point. Yes, no one has ever had 50, 15, and 15 before, but Wilt had a game where he had 53 pts, 32 rebounds, and 14 assists. To me, that's even more of an insane line.
It's always nice when only Wilt can top your stats. One can even argue that's not an insane stat line for Wilt. Thx partly to Wilt averaging 48mpg some years combined with the insane Pace of the game then Harden's 95 pts accounted for is also pretty damn impressive stat, second only to Wilt's silly 100pt game.
You know another thing that struck me after the game, and it's related to your comment, is that the stat line at the end, the record set, seemed to be accomplished damn near effortlessly. He didn't even seem like he worked up a big sweat, or that he was blown and catching his breath either during the game, or at the end. It seemed easy for him. I know it wasn't, but that made it seem even more remarkable to me on reflection. The record genuinely surprised me. James has to be in the best shape of his life. He looks it.
I agree but Hardens has to be the 2nd best triple double ever. And that's imo a top 10 stat line off alltime. I can't even wrap my head around what he did last night and how efficient he was and all the made threes. It's mind boggling.
Im feeling James Harden as much as the next brother, but saying James Harden will surpass Hakeem is just foolishness......Defensively there are not in the same galaxy......Harden will never touch Hakeem in Rebounds, Block, Steals or FG%.....So we are basically saying Harden's 3-5 ppg on a lower FG% makes him better offensively than Hakeem? Bruh, please stop.........If you were starting an NBA team from scratch, you would start with Hakeem because its basically nothing he couldnt do across the board......Hakeem almost had a Quintuple-double 38pts, 17rebs, 12blks, 7stls and 6asts in a single game.......Harden is my boy, but be serious
