[Bill Simmons] Harden and The History of Unhappy Stars Being Traded

Bill Simons and the Ringers had done probably more Harden videos and "analysis" in the last 8 days than his last 8 years playing for the Rockets.

LOL

 

In the words of the great @D-rock, Bill Simmons sucks.

 

Simmons has been buthurt since he got called about his Luka love and claiming Harden has "empty" assist.

Its funny that the narrative now is that harden has handpicked the team and now he wants to leave, when its been known that Harden has never recruited anybody.

Also Westbrook engineered his departure because he wanted to do things his ocd way and yet the narrative is that Harden ran another star away.

I really disappointed in Simmons running with this angle that Harden wanting out is somehow different if he really had this much control both MDA and Morey would still be here.

Case closed.

 

KOC gives Harden a ton of love and has talked about him a lot and I think Tjarks has given him good love too.

Logan Murdock seems like he's had reasonable Harden takes in the few times I've heard him.

Most of the rest of the Ringer like Simmons, Chris Vernon, and Russillo have been some degree of "Yeah he's legitimately great but I just don't like his game."

There are a couple of morons there like Chris Ryan who act like Harden isn't exceptionally good.

 

Exactly. Tell that to fchowder and the rest of the clowns here hating on harden 24/7 because of their agenda driven motives

 

'He goes to Philly and wins a title.'

That could be timeless.

 

A la Moses Malone.

 

Players have always forced their way off team, if they could.

I like the Dirk example.

He has a good point about Wilt and Russell.

I had vague details about the Earl Monroe.

 

Simmons has an ulterior motive, as usual.

He's anti-union and anti-labor, because the Ringer recently unionized over his vociferous objections, and because his 5 LA mansions need more swimming pools. And as ridiculous as it seems, the guy handing 100k in cash and Richard Mille watches to his bros is labor -- maybe this profligate display of consumption/largesse is how you know he's labor? Mgmt only gave you a gold seiko after 30 years of service, and that was back before they crushed labor to death 20 years ago

There's a good piece about the mock pretend outrage about labor having the call to push back on management in the NBA, whereas Management, like Daryl Morey, can do whatever it wants without similar castigation over on Defector

https://defector.com/james-harden-being-a-prick-is-not-an-existential-threat-to-the-nba/

But for my money, “modern, empowered superstar” and “within the league’s current practices” are the key tells. For the 500 millionth time, no matter how often The Ringer claims otherwise, no matter how forcefully the imperatives of 21st century online publishing incentivize sweaty, bogus trendspotting, there is absolutely nothing new about the phenomenon of NBA stars attempting, against the resistance of ownership, to force trades to their preferred teams and locations. There is nothing remotely new about them doing it mid-contract. There is nothing remotely new about them either withholding or threatening to withhold themselves from their teams as a negotiating tactic. Wilt Chamberlain did it in 1968. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did it in 1974. Friggin’ B.J. Armstrong, not exactly a heavyweight in the sport, refused to report to the Toronto Raptors when they took him first in the 1995 expansion draft, and they eventually traded him to the Golden State Warriors, a destination he liked better. For as long as NBA players have not been able to just pull up stakes and go play wherever they want, there have been players using the leverage they had to shape their careers how they wanted. If anything, the trend is away from the kind of forceful approach that once had Chamberlain vowing to switch leagues altogether if he couldn’t arrange a trade to Los Angeles.
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Tl;dr **** bill simmons lol

 

I agree with not trading Harden -- make him honor his contract (prob won't happen).

 

1960s-2019: Superstar players demand trades when they're unhappy. Fans don't like it, but whatever.

2020: James Harden demands a trade because he's unhappy, and suddenly Bill Simmons proclaims it's a big problem that MUST be addressed.

 

Bill Simmons is a terrible person.

The only person in that industry off the top of my head that I can think of that is a biggest ******* is Ryen Russillo.

 

This is not the Simmons we are looking for.....

 

Woah Bill!!! Dont hurt 'em!!!!

 

LMAO, I was scrolling up to the top, scrolled past it and had to come back for the like!!!

 

Yes but Simmons has more swimming pools so he wins the tie breaker.

 

Lol, appreciate it.... Still thou, don't care about this Simmons...

 

Don't remind me!

:-(