I'm not sure Harden's a better player than healthy Tmac. For one, Tmac played with a far less talented roster. Second, he played with one of the worst offensive coaches in JVG. Harden is balling right now under MDA, but he also has the tools around him that compliment his game. Yes his final year he had some problems with Morey & Les. But some of the criticism of Tmac isn't really fair. Tmac in a MDA offense would be just as lethal
T-Mac was soft, a diva, and a quitter. Ever wonder why his previous teams usually don't like him and boo him?
Bro!!! Are you paying any attention??? Harden is playing point guard!!! Handling the ball is typically what point guards do! He is doing what Steve Nash did except even better...almost averaging a triple double. Please...no more ignorant comments!
Why apologize before calling a guy an idiot? You dont apologize before you insult someone attempting to have compassion with the "sorry" only to then drop the I-bomb on him.
Remember when Harden called Fran Blinebury a "WEIRDO" during the Portland series in 2014? http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/04/james-harden-reporter-weirdo
remember the whole " I lost the love of basketball" thing he went through? He talked to Charles about it. This is typically not something a leader does.
We may just have to agree to disagree on this. Like I said, IMO T-Mac was easily the more talented player. But that doesn't make him the better player. Even in his prime and even when healthy. He could score and demanded attention from opposing defenses, and when he was engaged I think he was an underrated defender, but he didn't do nearly as much for the Rockets as a team as Harden does every night. Yes Harden is balling like crazy under MDA right now, but balled pretty hard under McHale and JBB too. Saying that Tmac played with a less talented roster could be debatable- don't forget how incredibly injury plagued our team was in the 2014-2015 season and Harden still carried us to a #2 seed and the WCF- much farther than T-Mac ever did even though he played with Hall of Famer Yao Ming (granted Yao was injured a lot too). It isn't just Harden's numbers (even though those are ridiculous) it is how much he does and runs and influences our entire team. Harden was #2 in MVP voting that year and had a legitimate claim to why he should have received the award. He should be the leading candidate for it this year. I may be wrong about this, but I think the highest T-Mac ever finished was 4th? That was during the 2002-2003 season when he was still in Orlando. His first season in Houston he was healthy for the season but at that point the talk about him being the best player in the league had already started to die down. I rooted for T-Mac a lot during his early years here before it appeared that he quit on us, but I would still take what Harden is doing for us now over what T-Mac was doing for us then.
The James Harden/T-Mac comparison sucks because it's so obvious who the better player is. Tracy was a fun player with incredible talent, could he of been better? Yes, but he wasn't so no use in getting into that. (same with Dwight) What James Harden is, is a once in a lifetime player, he's just not a player with incredible talent, he's adaptable, durable and intelligent. When it's said and done, James Harden will be the best Rocket ever & T-Mac will be just another fun player that played for the Rockets.
Lets not get ahead of ourselves. One of the best Rockets ever but not THE best....He's got a ways to go to reaching "Dream" status.
Of course!...This would clearly entail winning us 2 or 3 championships! I absolutely hope for this. But he can only be in that discussion if he wins us those titles.
Yup, classic Stacy McGrady. Won't lead, won't work hard in practice like he should, and consistently throws his teammates under the bus.
I'm not saying McGrady didn't lead with his play, and I'm not sure where you got that idea. This board is full of McBabies who get all pissy when someone says ANYTHING less than complimentary about their boy. T-Mac and Yao were my favorite Rox player in the '90s. I still have my #1 jersey and wear it proudly at games. I never said McGrady sucked, never said he wasn't an amazing player -- all I said was that he should have taken control of that team in ways other than his playing, and his failure to do so hurt us. If you can't see that, then you're blinded by T-Mac ballsweat. However, when the GM and coach asked T-Mac point blank to assert himself as the vocal leader of the team, he DECLINED. I have honestly never heard of a superstar who said "no thanks."
But can Harden turn it up in the playoffs like T-Mac???? Reminder: T-Mac has the 11th highest PER in nba playoff HISTORY.
So much truth to this post. I'm glad you understand basketball. Reminder: T-Mac has the 11th highest PER in nba playoff HISTORY.
Reminder: T-Mac is one of the minority of Hall of Famers to never advance past the first round. Put those two together and you have an incredibly talented individual scorer who couldn't find a way to push his teammates to play as well as he did in the playoffs. Is that his responsibility? Yes and no; obviously one person can't FORCE his teammates to play better, but the true leaders always find a way to do that. Harden isn't there just yet, but the FACT is that he agreed to accept the leadership responsibility, whereas McGrady decided it wasn't something he was interested in.
