Why does the mainstream media always dislike Harden?

I think part of it is that he's not your typical highlight sportscenter plays guy. What you typically see is high flyer dunks or just athletic plays, like lebron or westbrook, as opposed to reading the defense, dissecting the play, making the right pass to a corner 3, or getting fouled and going to the line 14 times and going 14 for 14. So part of it, I understand because it's just not as sexy. All harden needs to do is keep winning and they'll eventually respect the rockets like they respected the spurs - even though they were boring, they won all the time.

 

Remember when the media loved Westbrook the year he won MVP (2017)? He was averaging a triple double, even though Harden was averaging a higher Points and Assists per game and Houston had a significantly better record. And Houston beat OKC in the first round and ended up losing to GSW in the WCF.

Anyways, The media was nut riding OKC and Westbrook that entire 2016 - 2017 season. They were foaming at the mouth praising OKC and Westbrook, reiterating how bad they felt that he played with such a sh!tty team. He's not even a likable guy either, he's an emotional transvestite and let's his feelings be known on and off the court.

OKC is a tiny media market, but yet the media continually gave (and still continue to give) the team and Westbrook praise. So it's not as easy as just saying it's a major market reason.

Also, here is the current list of top media markets in the US

• New York (#1)
• Los Angeles (#2)
• Chicago (#3)
• Philadelphia (#4)
• Dallas-Fort Worth (#5)
• Washington, D.C. (Hagerstown) (#6)
• Houston (#7)
• San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose (#8)
• Boston (Manchester) (#9)
• Atlanta (#10)

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lis..._in_North_America_by_media_market?wprov=sfla1

Houston is is #7. That makes us a major market

 

Deep down they know he's the best!!

 

because we are the only team that threaten their golden child worriers.also in the way of lebrick vs worrier west finals and Harden is the big part of that.
i say **** THEM ALL!
these hates mean we are doing something right.

 

Because the mainstream media listens to social media on what to say and think.

The better questions is why is Harden disliked amongst non-Rockets fans? The answer is people think his playstyle (of drawing fouls) is like cheating.

 

see on one hand i agree with all this. but then tim duncan and steve nash come to mind. neither of those were high flyers and nash never won anything. yet they were loved!

 

He's in the top 10-15 highest selling jerseys. It's not really true that fans don't like him. That was just a really great myth they made up so people would click harder on titles, likes and dislikes >> all of which benefits them.

 

Jealousy. Let's face it, Harden has it all. Great player. Max contract. Big shoe deal. Strip club VIP. Beard.

Most members of the media might have one of those things.

 

Harden is an amazing player who right now is carrying his team without Chris Paul. He does not get the credit. We have won 9 of our last ten and the media still wants to talk about Luck, Trevor and our slow start. They bash Harden on his defense and never once mention how he is one of the leaders in steals. They never talk about how he guards bigs in the post, just how a smaller quicker guard blows by him. It's a bunch of crap. Harden should be in the running for MVP again and I'm sure the media will do all they can to not let him win 2 in a row.

 

Harden is an amazing player who right now is carrying his team without Chris Paul. He does not get the credit. We have won 9 of our last ten and the media still wants to talk about Luc, Trevor and our slow start. They bash Harden on his defense and never once mention how he is one of the leaders in steals. They never talk about how he guards bigs in the post, just how a smaller quicker guard blows by him. It's a bunch of crap. Harden should be in the running for MVP again and I'm sure the media will do all they can to not let him win 2 in a row.

 

The bigger question is why do we give a ****?

DD

 

They dont like Houston and specifically espn opened up an ESPNDallas which helped in even further disliking Houston via the Houston vs Dallas rivalry we have.

Harden left NIKE for adidas and NIKE is a HUGE HUGE influence in the NBA and specifically ESPN as a high high dollar investor and buying of commercial time.

Harden is introverted and doesnt scream and yell very often. He doesnt get overly angry or upset. He has a chill personality. He doesnt show A LOT of emotion like ESPN and DaDakota want to see.

Harden vs Lin in the first year he was here and all the LOFs hated him. Hated him so much that a LOF user made a video about his defense to attack him to prop up Lin which ended up going viral and discrediting Harden A LOT.

Hes dark skin with a huge "muslim-esque" style beard during a time our nation was constantly targeting, attacking and blaming "muslims" for all of our problems.

 

I am sure they strive to be VIPs in the strip joints!

 

I would add the defense video that went viral to your list but maybe that was the result of his already being disliked.

On the other hand, he seems to get a lot of endorsements/ad time so advertisers must view him as popular.

 

To me, it probably stems from the media having it always wrong when it comes to predicting rockets success. Most of them did not originally did not have any confidence in Morey's analtyics, MDA, Harden trade and CP3 .Now the rest of the NBA is now trying to mimic us, expect more

 

The good news is here in Houston that our sports franchises as a whole have NEVER been better

 

Go Coogs!

 

I think it's a lot simpler than most here have spoken about.

Most if not all talking heads of NBA basketball are fans first. Most of them are fans of cities they grew up in or near...mostly New York, Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles. If the superstar plays for one of them or is the "chosen one", then it's easy to fans.

Otherwise, you're just that guy that beat your favorite team/player.

 

I'd love to see Kristen Ledlow ask Harden OP's question: "James, do you feel you're on the level of the ruling coalition?"