[Grantland] Listen to Your Heart: James Harden Is the MVP

Thank you for this.

 

People seem to forget how many free throws Jordan took in his prime:

86-87 10.2 makes -11.9 attempts
87-88 8.8 makes- 10.5 attempts
For his career he averaged 8.2 free throws and that's including his last two years of lesser production with the Wizards, but no one held that against him.

Lebron had three seasons where he averaged more than 10 free throws a game in his first stint in Cleveland and that wasn't considered a negative, including a year where he averaged 10.3.

Durant averaged 9.9 free throws and won MVP last year. .3 free throws per game less than Harden this year, but some how it's negative for Harden?

Kobe had three seasons where he averaged more than 10 free throws, including one where he averaged the same 10.2 Harden is now. Even this year Westbrook is averaging 9.8 free throws. Basically every other game Harden gets one more free throw than Westbrook. What a flopper who is ruining the game...

So I don't understand why some media act like Harden's 10.2 free throws is some sort of historic aberration that should be considered a negative.

Offensively I don't think Harden flops, but what he does do is create the contact on many plays. He runs into people on purpose to draw the foul. He swings his arms thru their out stetched arms or body to create contact that could have been avoided. He forces the foul call with his physical play. Some people won't like that style of play aesthetically compared to a more graceful finesse game or over whelming athletic dominance. But it's not flopping and it's rewarding him the same number of free throws than many other league MVP candidates have shot in the past.

 

Are people really focusing on his mentions of Harden flopping? Who cares?

He's making a case for Harden winning MVP on a platform that is almost universally pro-Curry. I appreciate the article, despite some minor annoyances, and hope it gets some discussion going around in Harden's favor. Good for Andrew Sharp understanding the meaning of the word "valuable", unlike 85% of the media.

 

i'd like to see what the warriors record would be if their starters only played 2 games together all season, and they lost almost 100 games from their top 8 players.

my guess is it wouldn't be as good as the rockets. this is the point that i don't see anyone in the media talking about, probably because its a rock solid case for harden, which they don't want to make.

its a case for harden as MVP, its a case for mchale and COY, and its a case for morey as GMOY since everyone thought we'd be worse after losing parsons, asik, and lin. but the media hates harden and morey and will never give them their due respect.

 

Whoops... yeah, fixed.

I think Curry wins it.

So Harden vs. Curry in the WCF with the Rockets winning will definitely be sweet justice!

 

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Harden is averaging the same number of FTA per game (10.2) as LeBron James when they were the same age (25), which also happened to be an MVP year for LeBron (2010).

CREATING CONTACT ≠ FLOPPING

Shaq used to shoot an obscene number of FT (like 10-13 over a decade) because he deliberately created contact and nobody could stop him w/o fouling. That ain't flopping. If you're too fast, too strong, and too crafty to be guarded, you're going to get to the line. Congrats, well deserved.

If getting to the FT line is so easy, how come everyone else isn't doing it?

 

Actually, that guy was from Boston, making it even more of a publicity stunt to pick a NY player for MVP.

 

Harden will be robbed lol that's why all this BS is coming out how he "should" win it but won't

 

You should be repped to infinity for this. Everyone. here is the link to the post.: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=9666181&postcount=36.

The post should be forwarded to sports writers and then - retweeted for those who understand the tweetering (not me).

Not only shows how blatantly Harden gets mugged but also how relentless, and unstoppable this man is.

 

I listen to my heart, but mostly my body.

 

Flopping Olympics? WTF? He's getting hacked out there why is this clown continuing a narritive that isnt true?

 

And what if the Rockets get bounced?

Not winning the MVP isn't going to be an extra boost for Harden to succeed in the playoffs. He will already be motivated.

 

If Curry wins MVP, than the Rockets are winning the championship. These people are not realizing that they will wake up a monster and I like it.!!!!!

 

I'm not hoping Harden losses the MVP, but when he does, I hope it pisses him off.

 

Am I the only person that's tired of hearing every single show and seeing every article say that our team outside of Harden is crap? Ok,that makes the MVP argument for Harden stronger but it's completely false. We have some very good pieces. True we don't have as deep of a team as the Warriors or a starting 5 like the Clippers but I would argue that overall we have a top 5 to 7 roster. It's really frustrating to see it repeated over and over again. It's like these writers and commentators have no original thought and once someone says something, they all all just run with it.

Sorry...my rant is over

 

After reading the article I'm not nearly as annoyed as I was after reading the quotes the OP chose to lift from the piece.

The author points out just how historic a season Harden is having. Not since Jordan, Bird and Lebron has anyone had such a season; something the pundits hardly mention.

The author talks about Harden dragging the Rockets to a 2-3 seed with his best players being DMO and Ariza

I don't think this article is as pro Curry as we think