Ironic to see - Suns' collective effort pushes them to 2-0 Finals lead and then on the same page... Brooklyn Nets' James Harden stopped by police in Paris, not arrested obviously the Harden thing isnt a big deal... still some irony there... jus sayin... lol
It seems like every summer Harden is involved in some sort of shenanigans. In the prior off season he was partying in Vegas at strip clubs during a pandemic and not showing up to camp, in the season before that someone took a photo of him or someone in his group and he grabbed the woman's arm supposedly injuring her and threw her phone onto the roof of the club, and then had to offer to pay for her phone in order to not report it. He could use some new friends. If he wants to hang out with rappers, he should hang out with the A-List ones who have people around them who constantly will keep them out of trouble. Lil baby has been arrested on drug charges numerous times with intent to distribute, he probably has a target on his back at this point, why associate with him. I didn't see them with much security, seems like Travis Scott on the other hand had the secret service with him in Paris.
All I know is bad Karma is the real deal, if CP3 ends up winning a ring this year then the two star players that Harden got tired of and ran them out of town end up both getting rings before him in back to back seasons. Dwight with the Lakers last year and CP3 this year. And to top it off, Harden forces his way out from the Rockets and tries to get a ring the easy way and still doesn’t! Ain’t that a b****.
CP3 made it because he chose an up and coming team on the rise. One that went 8-0 on the bubble. CP3 probably got way too much credit for a team that was going to rise with or without him
They were on the rise, but CP3 gives them the intelligence and ball security to reach a much higher level than they were on the course to hit. DD
Now that CP3 is in the finals, everyone's out here writing revisionist history, absolving him of any blame for his last season with the Rockets and what happened immediately afterward. Let's me simplify it for everyone. Here's a list of the people who share the blame for the Rockets' post-2018 downfall: Harden CP3 Morey MDA Tilman
CP3 was pretty bad, but it came out that Harden was behind the scenes basically running him out of town - now Tilman clearly took Harden's advice and supported him in getting Westbrook, but the CULTURE of entitlement that was CREATED around Harden is mostly to blame. DD
Can't believe how many people here think Harden and especially Morey are the reason Paul is gone... Hell, even Paul himself has come out and said that he and Harden had no beef, and he's the first person that should be bitter if they did have any beef. And you really think an analytical mind as brilliant as Morey's is not going to see that Paul was still very clearly a better player than Westbrook in 2019? Especially for Harden's Rockets??? Morey is the last guy who will ever be fooled by some triple doubles and dunks. I'm 95% convinced that Fertits is the one who wanted Worstbrook most. I would bet that he was down on Paul after a bad year and was counting on Westbrick's explosiveness and "TRIP DUBZZZ" to sell tickets, and probably forced Morey's hand when Westbroke demanded a trade. I'm sure Harden was down with it, but I highly doubt it was his idea or that he was pushing hard for it.
The easier narrative to believe is that the guys who bailed out on the team destroyed it, then left. That way, you convince yourself that the owner isn't horrible, then you can keep rooting 100% for your team because the villains all left town. It's much more difficult on the psyche to know that the title you're hoping for was possibly delayed a decade or more by the a*hole owner who made a string of terrible decisions and is STILL HERE and can never be fired for incompetence.
Feel free to keep your mind free of Tilman cheaping out on role players and f@%king around the franchise's winningest coach if it helps you sleep better, DD. "It's all Harden's fault" is so much easier to process.
That being said, Phoenix wouldn't have made it out of the first round this year if AD hadn't of gone down. Lakers in 6.
You really can't have much against Harden. 1. He stayed here longer than Lebron when he was w/ the Cavs, giving the Rockets most of his prime years in the league. 2. CP had a bad season when we traded him, I was really scared Chris Paul was never going to be healthy as a Rocket. 3. Owner sucks. 4. Morey should've fought and quit his job. He took his time to line up his next job before he took off. 5. The Phoenix team today is something else. The last year CP and Harden played together was a trash roster and it was going to continue to be this way with the cap staying the way it was. In comparison, a lot of good players are playing really clutch roles for Phoenix. I also say the same about the Bucks' roster. I can say I didn't foresee Chris Paul swinging back to have these types of post-seasons after he left the Rockets. But the competition this season is subpar what with all the injuries going on. I also thought Giannis wasn't going far this season.
i It’s pretty funny that people misuse “culture” this way. The culture that led to the downfall was Tillman’s. Nobody was looking for a way out because of Harden but everybody was looking for a way out. They’d all still be there but for one guy, the same one that forced the Westbrook trade in the first place. (This is not insider info btw, it’s plain for all to see.)