You could NOT honestly say this about Jordan or Kobe. Not so sure it applies to Lebron either. At least not in the West.
Compared to Lillard, Harden is a victim of his own success in the regular season. I think very few people in the media put Lillard on Harden's tier as a basketball player. Just look at the MVP and All-NBA voting (5 1st team selections for Harden, 1 for Lillard). Or even Player of the Month awards (Harden has several, Lillard none). The way these players end up being judged is how they elevate their play going from regular season to playoffs, especially in critical moments that can swing a series. What critics don't appreciate is the load Harden carries, just as a baseline.
How come they had none of that energy for KD when he was busy choking in OKC and having his efficiency drop at a higher rate in the postseason than Harden? Also, the media is acting like Dame is some career killer. Laughable. His career playoff stats are nothing special. Dame goes from borderline top 10 player to barely All-Star level. Harden goes from God to top 5 player. Oh, and the media loves to call AD a better player than Harden, but his expectations are nowhere close to Harden’s. Why is that? Dude just scored 28 points on 8-24 shooting with 2 points in the 4th quarter as he lost game 1 to a below .500 8 seed. All u hear is crickets. Let that have been Harden who is supposed to be worse than AD...
Durant certainly had his critics. But he left OKC at age 27. By that point, he led his team to two conference finals and one NBA finals as his team's best player.
his critics were nothing close to what Harden has been receiving for years... they blamed Russ...KD got little heat some rando at a OKC newspaper called him unreliable 1 time, and that was the biggest criticism he got before joining GS after choking against them KD was supposed to be right up there with Bron, so his playoff play should’ve been a huge deal. Except for some reason Harden who they had a tier or 2 below KD gets more heat and has higher expectations. Why no heat for AD who they consistently put above Harden?
LOL, Stop. Russillo is a full on Harden hater. Yes, he will praise parts of his game, but he is not a fan.
I really don’t get all the pushback on durvasa’s point. I subscribe and listen to just about every Bill Simmons podcast. Listen to RR’s show most time too. I have heard him talk about Harden and Houston on many occasions. Yes he famously said he dislikes watching us and that he will always be rooting against us. He also nearly ALWAYS follows that info by saying something along the lines of...”while I dislike it there is absolutely no denying how great Harden is and how effective Houston’s strategy is....” To me a “hater” goes to every length possible to discredit how good a player really is. Russillo recognizes the greatness. Doesn’t try to say anything about how he’s really not as good as people think. Only that he just hates watching it.
Gotta push back here, he definitely does discredit Harden. He's always throwing around comments along the lines of "if other players got every single call the way Harden does" or "well nobody else commits to jumping under the defenders legs like Harden does". He's also made flippant comments about how the only reason Harden is "hard to guard" is because of the whistle he gets. To me this is discrediting Harden. Just because he also has the disclaimer of "but I know he's also really good" doesn't really change that for me.
If I heard him say that, I'd be just as annoyed about it as you. Honestly, I haven't heard those sort of comments from him, but as I said earlier I'm not really a frequent listener of his podcasts so that could just be ignorance on my part.
Different definitions of hate I guess. Maybe I should say I don’t believe RR’s “hate” for Harden has skewed his view on the reality of how good he really is. I think a lot of people tend to do that. Dislike for a player leading them to not accept or acknowledge how good a player truly is. He knows and admits he is one of the best players of this era and of all time.
That pretty much defines the mindset of the Harden hater. Because they've seen him overdo something a few times (the infamous double-stepback, grabbing an arm, flopping to get a call, kicking his legs out on a 3), they honestly believe he does that every single time he touches the ball. Those of us who actually watch him play know better. Those moments occur, but they're the aberration, not the norm. And they're fewer in number now than they were a few seasons back. I've watched every single game he's played as a Rocket and know what a small fraction of his game those sketchy plays are, and anyone could compile videos of similar plays by Steph, Giannis, LeBron, etc. For some reason, though (maybe his statistical success?), Harden is the one who gets stuck with the label of "unwatchable."
I firmly to this day still believe that 99% of the people who have this point of view didn’t watch Harden and Houston and come to that conclusion themselves. I think it was something someone said and it caught on and was parroted into “existence”. Mainly because I believe 99% of people who watch basketball have no freaking clue what they are watching. They can’t recognize simple sets that teams run. And we are supposed to believe that watching Harden and Houston REALLY hurts their sensibilities as a basketball “aficionado”. Bullshit. It’s generally know nothings wanting to join the group.
Do y'all think saying "Harden kicks his legs out and falls down on every 3" accurate? Or hating and a misrepresentation? And yes he's literally said this multiple times. How about Harden travels on every stepback?
