Honestly, I don’t think he was trying to diss Harden. He’s saying he’s not a scorer like Harden and that’s why he doesn’t always have big scoring nights in the playoffs. Regardless of his intentions, however, he didn’t answer the question very well. Now he’s going to be torn apart again by the Internet.
not sure how u don’t interpret this as him saying that Harden doesn’t make any impact on the defensive end and is just a scorer "I'm no James Harden," George said of how he tries to impact the game on both ends of the floor. "That's not my knack ... to just shoot the ball, score the ball. I can and I pride myself on being effective on both ends. But there's going to be nights like this where I just can't make a shot, and I can't allow that to affect my game." "Shot-making ... scoring the ball is not what I [only] do," he added. "I try to do everything, I try to play the game the right way and just get lost in the game and try to pass the ball and make plays defensively, rebound. Just a little bit of everything. I am going through a tough time, but good thing about it, we are up 2-1 in this series and I haven't shot the ball well."
Taken out of a context maybe? I don’t know, maybe he’ll clarify. I read the whole quote and I took it as him saying he’s not on Harden’s level as a prolific scorer. Being that he is no James Harden offensively, he has to go out and try to impact the game in other ways.
What he needs to do is keep Harden’s name out his mouth. You’re right, you damn sure are no James Harden, and u should be happy u aren’t, because it takes a different breed to be able to handle the criticism Harden gets. U want no parts of Harden’s burden or expectations. imagine Harden ever starting off a series 7-33 from the field against a defense on the Mavs level, or even an elite defense
The end of that quote was taken a bit out of context. If you listen to his presser it sounds like he's actually talking down on himself, saying he's not a pure scorer like Harden.
when I watched the video, it seemed that way to me. The question was something like “how much do you pride yourself in doing other things”. He answers first that he’s no Harden, it’s not his knack to shoot the ball and score. Then he goes on to say that he can do other things...yada yada. PG has historically been complimentary of Harden , so I don’t think he would just take shots at Harden out of the blue. For this quote, I give him the benefit of the doubt.
That's wht i thought, to PG, friend (russ) 's friend (James) gotta be…friend So maybe he does not mean it
Yeah that video doesn’t match the interpretation of the text. That wasn’t a knock on James, that was more a compliment
I tend to agree — he is usually respectful about other players. It seems odd that he’d throw in a dig at Harden like that. Can’t tell if it’s him just being passive aggressive, or if he’s trying to make a point that he’s more in the Pippen mold than someone who is depended on to score a lot of points (like a James Harden). Giving the benefit of the doubt is a good default position in life, generally, but that’s a big ask for a sports fan in the heat of the playoffs.
harden does more than score tho? he's a great passer and in the playoffs he's playing better on the defensive end than paul george. whatever it is, it's weird to bring up harden's name outta nowhere when he has nothing to do with what is going on in that series.
