[ESPN/Goldsberry] "More than any other player in the league, Harden operates like the refs are marks

He acts like the vast majority of the 3-point fouls Harden draws aren’t legit. Harden just shoots more contested threes than anyone else, by a wide margin I bet. He will naturally, therefore, draw more fouls. Goldberg should have put those fouls in that proper context rather than putting up stats just to drive the point he is trying to make.

 

Who?

 

Everyone here even if they aren't willing to admit it has been frustrated time and time again when Harden in clutch situations tries to shoot for the foul on contested threes than try to actually make the shot. It's frustrating and believing that everyone outside the Rocket fan bubble just hates Harden willy willy is sad.

He exaggerates more often than other players. It's a known fact by now. In game one of the Warriors series, he legitmately was undercutted by Thompson and deserved the 3-4 missed calls in the first half. However, outside our bubble, many fans didn't really have much sympathy for Harden mainly because they believe it's "the boy who cried wolf".

Harden then proceeded in the 4th quarter in a key possession tried to bait a foul on a 3 pt shot on Draymond and Harden bricked the shot. We've seen him do this plenty of times.

Every player occasionally baits for fouls. Harden does it more often AND Harden does it on key possesions in 4th quarter situations where the refs are more likely to hold on to the whistle. It's cost us games in the regular season and especially in the playoffs.

Yes, Harden takes an unprecedented amount of contested threes. But a large reason why he takes an unprecedented amount of contested threes is because he's hoping many of them draw contact. He plays for the ft rows.

 

Man, Everyone is piling on Harden and the Rockets. I pray the Rockets can win this series so I can go back and read all this bullshit. Currently I'm ignoring all of it.

 

Yes, Harden carrying this team to a series win against the Warriors would change millions of NBA fans' opinions of him. It's the only way they will accept his style of play.

 

There's a simple way to put this whole issue to bed: The league should release all of the Rockets' full-game ref reports from the last couple of years.

If the number of Harden's 3-point shots incorrectly called fouls is drastically higher than the number of missed foul calls on his 3s, then there might be a problem. And even then, they'd have to identify James himself as the reason those fouls were incorrectly called.

 

Goldsberry is a VP in the Spurs organization. No surprise he doesn't have much love for the Rockets.

 

Translation: "We were forced to acknowledge some things we didn't want to say when Morey put hard data up after the first game, but now that's that all behind us after Game 2, we can get back on the Harden hate train and even bolster it a bit by being sympathetic to the refs in the process."

 

honestly can’t read anymore of this Harden/Rockets negativity...it’s starting to become exhausting

the agenda is so clear...this series is slowly making me start to get tired of the NBA...maybe this is just a phase for me, but they do not want to see us win, and it’s obvious

Why should I expect a fair match against GS?

 

In a fair match, we straight up beat them in the past 2 years. A stacked teams needs the media, nba, refs, and luck to get anywhere shows how weak that team is and how well Rockets can counter their strengths and abuse weaknesses.

 

THIS
we are better than the worriers and its not even close!