Peak James Harden took 11.0 in 2018-19 and 11.8 in 2019-20 and the entire NBA commentariat freaked out and we had to do rule changes to prevent it from ever happening again.
Giannis has been offensive fouling his way to the line for 10+ free throws for ages now if u attempt to guard him, he’ll just ram into u and get the call every time, or he’ll flail his elbows so u gotta choose from either getting out the way, or receiving a blow to the face plus getting called for a foul
Sounds like Shaq way back when. It's all marketing for the league. When they become 'less important' in their careers, the fouls start getting called and they look shocked.
On one hand, I like physicality being rewarded, but with Giannis... it's gotten a little out of hand the last few years. It's like he's playing by a completely different set of rules than everyone else. He gets to carry the ball on every single occasion (like literally 90% of the time). He gets to ram into people at full speed resulting in otherworldly superstar calls. His dominance feels manufactured.
The Free throw narrative doesn't exist anymore. It's a non topic. Luka and Embiid also live at the line at a similar rate as Giannis. And the group behind them isn't that far off either with plenty of games going to the line easily over 10 times. things like this only become an "issue" if the media puts out a narrative and the casuals catch onto it bringing the attention
It's because of his size and play style, ^ the Shaq comp is a good one, people just understand. Harden drew a lot of fouls on jumpers and was seen too many times hooking his opponents arms on drives which ticked off a lot of fans. Overall I'd love for the offensive player-initiated contact plays to be no calls, if it would be embarrassing to call in a pickup game it shouldn't be called in the NBA. Bucks scored 150 last night, teams are dropping 130, 140 and 150 like it's nothing this season and it's nuts. Let players D up.
The narrative with Harden was that he used baiting tactics and various rule book exploits to get free throws (jumping into players on the perimeter and hooking defenders on his drives were the big one that people complained about). Giannis tends to get his free throws by just ramming into defenses, right? Harden did that quite a bit too, but I don't think those were the sort of fouls most complainers online objected to. I think the complaining over Harden's free throws was mostly stupid, but he did get his free throws differently. Maybe there's another popular perimeter player who gets a ton of free throws who'd be a better comp than Giannis, if we're looking to argue for a double standard.
This. There was no shortage of nba podcasters/columnists who constantly expressed how boring it was to watch Houston/Harden shoot 10+ FTs every game. Essentially all those same people are still podcasting/writing columns and it’s just not even a thing to them anymore. In some cases they have completely flipped the narrative and praise guys who can get to the line that often.
Some of the objection was Harden "holding the ball out" and guys would reach but be unable to knock the ball away. ANyway, a lot of the obejction wasn't so much to the style but to the practice of getting points at the line in general, since it broke up the game flow. That seems to have melted away.
People just didn’t like Harden. Same way that some people love Luka’s game but thought Harden was boring. That’s some dumb ****.
We have to accept this type of thing. There are some players that the media just don't like . . . . They will always have their favorites MJ - They made rules to help him Hakeem - They made rules to stop him Rocket River
Giannis plays physically intending to score, even when playing one-dimensional barrell-attack and getting calls. Harden had several unnatural patterns/tricks just to bait for the foul
They just straight up admit it now. I was listening to Lowe Post today, and Zac Lowe - no Harden fan at all - was starting to argue that Harden has been under rhe radar awesome this season and would deserve all star consideration but for missed games and Bobby Marks just cuts him off and says "i guess i just don't like James Harden because i saw the game they lost against the Thunder 2 weeks ago and his defense was the worst ever" ... and that was the James Harden segment of the conversation. I don't mind that people like and don't like certain players or styles - it's part of being a fan, but it's clear that a lot of 2017-19 excuses to downgrade him by the NBA Takesters were both flimsy, inconsistently applied and mixed with personal preference, which is how Greek Freak can get 2 more fouls per game than 2018 MVP Harden and it's just crickets in terms of complaints
The only perimeter player who was good or better at drawing fouls than Harden was actually Kevin Martin.
