Glimpse the irrational mind of a Rockets/Harden hater.

I too was a fan of Harden since OKC days, but the foul-drawing issue was not as prominent as it is today. Just go to any basketball forum, and ask the 'haters' why they don't like Harden, and I guarantee you this is the no.1 reason. No.2 is defense. Again, it's really not that complicated, and yes they are wrong and mistaken.

 

Arent they actual fouls? Does the defendenders reach in or not? Does the defrnders put their hands on harden?

Do you happen to get your talking points from steve kerr?

Even the league admits theyre legit fouls. They spent a whole summer and the only thing they can change was if FTs are given or not

 

People hate us because we proved we were more intelligent than all their respective teams' GMs.

People just don't like feeling dumb. Yea, GSW route is kind of cheating because they just wanted to overpower opponents with talent. That's easy to grasp.

But stats itself is difficult to grasp and we're still at the forefront of the advanced stats frontier. Many teams still use the old school, eyeball scouting reports. Some with advanced stats and/or practitioners, others neither. It's not just what stats tell you but how to use stats. In our case, we seem to be have found the right user.

 

Hey, re-read my post man. My point was it's clear why the haters hate Harden, but also said they are still wrong. Don't get the distinction? I'm saying it's not because of Harden's beard or personality.

Harden is very good at riding the fine line between what is legal and illegal. Harden actually very rarely engages in outright illegal moves (like flopping), but the narrative among the haters is that Harden is a cheater; abuser of the system.

So while we don't have to agree with the haters, we also don't have to pretend to not understand what their motivation is, because it's pretty clear.

 

Harden's Rockets were really liked when Parsons and Lin were still in Houston - and that was when Harden went to the line the most in his entire career. Weird.

 

Why cant you accept that opponents do foul harden to stop him from producing points and beating them. And once they foul him more likely than not they'll be called.

In general does majority of what harden does is legal or illegal???

When has he flopped that no one touched him then he suddenly gets thrown off? Lebron has done that numerous times but does people hate him for that

If harden was playing for gsw, okc, cavs, spurs, boston, lakers you think he'll still be as hated?

 

That little twerp going on about what *should* have happened to James Harden after shaking Johnson was too much.

 

Most of the harden haters here now are either parsons or lin dick munchers anyway

 

It's also easy to overestimate the level of hate that Harden really receives. Harden is actually MORE popular today than ever, and if you don't believe me just look at his jersey/shoe sales and all-star ballot votes and compare it to his early days. Not even close.

The real problem is, as always, vocal minority. And Harden does seem to have the worst vocal minority of haters (for the reasons I stated above.) But it doesn't mean they outnumber his fans.

 

Chris Ryan, Chris Vernon, Juliet Litman...all of them hate the Rockets

Kevin O'Connor and Haley O'Shaughnessy like the Rockets and they're cool

Bill Simmons used to like the Rockets but he's been brainwashed by the hater group this season

Andrew Sharp who used to be with The Ringer prided himself on being the number 1 Rockets/Harden hater. He now hates Harden with Sports Illustrated.

 

So true. They ignore the drive to practice harder, study more, and evolve into the player needed to take the next step.

I’m glad Harden and Paul are steam rolling the NBA pundits and their narrative.

My personal feeling is that because Curry and Klay are half white, some fools are secretly pushing that narrative; could that account for their popularity (league exploiting race)? Just look at the hype that Blake Griffin gets and he’s such a jerk.

 

From someone that has watched 85% of Rockets games for the past 10 years, Harden gets fouled, a lot. Defenders OFTEN reach and foul him when he gathers, and when they complain, most of the time it’s because they hit the ball after they hit his arm.

If anything, especially this year, by the rulebook, Harden deserves to get to the line many more times.

 

Well, sending a positive luv you vibe to Anderson! Fk you haterz.

Spoiler

 

Pretty sure it was because of the story the media was still selling at the time, you had a fresh Harden being traded to the Rockets from OKC, Parsons was an unknown commodity and Lin was coming off of the season where Linsanity gave him that poison pill contract. Plus the Rockets were still considered underdogs compared to the rest of the league.

Harden is just better sold as the villain right now, just as LBJ was when he was with the Heat. The only reason why they're trying to throw more hate on us is because we're actually in a position to contend for the title. We're the main variable that can put a kink in the GSW's plans, remove us and you don't have a real race on either side or any real strong team that can withstand GSW's depth and talent. Even then, unless we're clicking on all cylinders -> JJ, Green, Gordon and Anderson have to all be playing well to give us a shot.

 

I wanted to report you for leaving an awesome comment but I couldn’t. Well done, sir.

 

The thing these Haters have to understand is that Harden is loyal to the owner that made him a very rich man. If he had to end the season early he would do it. Just figure it that way and leave last season's final performance alone.

 

So let me get this right, this clown hates Harden and the Rockets because we score regularly and are elite? I’ll take it. This ain’t a Popularity contest. I rather be elite and a wining franchise and have some four eyed dork who probably never worked out a day in his computer game ridden life hate us then be bad and the same dork loving us.

 

There are so many good takes in this thread it's hard to leap off any one take.

I think what's his name starts to get at it when he says that it's like we've got the "cheat codes". I'm not alone in pointing that out. They say it's the way Harden draws contact and the lack of defense but if there are any haters who have actually seen them play then I think it's because they realize we have hacked the game. Everyone wanted to do it. Golden State has in their own way. We've done it too. Maybe better.

But some of the haters are coming around. If you watch Rachel Nichols in the segment about the Rockets Warriors rivalry from a few days ago she seems to be coming around. At least she's appreciating the way Harden put the (Mortal Kombat voice) FATALITY on that poor sap. She even laughed at the close up of Harden licking his lips while he stared at the poor fool.