You may be too young to remember - but Jordan had tons and tons of haters before he started winning rings. And Curry never had much of a chance to get haters because he went from being outside the top 10 to winning rings and an MVP in one season. Before Steve Kerr GS was a mess and Curry wasn't considered a great players - not even sure he was a top 5 pg in the western conference at that stage.
There were skeptics with Jordan such as whether a team so reliant on a ball dominant scorer can win a ring(similar to Harden's criticism). No one thought his play style was ugly and gimmicky. That's why general nba fans have an adverse reaction to Harden. That's just the way it is.
Ok, boomer. Spoiler Yeah, I can't stop them haterz but bandwagoners ratio was much higher. And in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s hating meant probably something different than today in the Social media era. Just meant people who disliked someone's game doesn't make him an automatic hater. Harden's game definitely was impacted by Morey and his artificial petridish intelligence so a lot of hate should go to Morey instead. He is not a bad guy, just minding his own business, does his own thang and brand, that's all. Yes, part of that hate is fabricated by media narrative, by the style he plays, by the millenial standard of today that everyone seeks attention. And by the fact that the Rockets are not viewed a chic franchise outside of Houston and Texas.
There is nothing to forgive. Harden doesn't owe me anything. Harden performing considerably worse in the playoffs relative to his regular seasons is a positive statement of "what is". There is no subjective claim to it. Make your own conclusions based off that objective information.
Yeah, forget the 3 games before that where he had 43, 28 and 33 points..... with him shooting over 45% in those games. Oh, he also had 27 assists in those 3 games. He had 4 good games and 2 bad games in that series. You guys are hilarious. The nitpicking is unreal.
It really doesn't matter. He's basically played against one of the best teams of all time with barely any support. Of course his performances will drop if he's had to carry the load.
https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400878160 also, your favorite dude TMac never got past the first round.