Chris Paul walks off court without shaking Harden's hand?

I'm not disagreeing with it being a business, just think he still has the right to be disappointed everything didn't go as planned. However, my understanding is that he was traded because Harden said it was "him or me", not for financial reasons or the structure of his contract, and the question is why didn't he shake his hand after the game, there is your reason.

As an outsider it really looked like things went from going very well to bad in a very short period of time. I clearly remember Harden and CP routing a major rival and CP telling Harden he "never had help" until now. I don't blame Harden, it was something that couldn't be resolved in his eyes, but CP seems like a reasonable person from the on court disagreements and his reaction to Harden being upset. If you look at that clip where he slaps CP3's hand away, you can tell one was behaving more maturely than the other. The way things went down, it just seemed like something that could have been worked out with more discussions since they had fundamental success. I have noticed that when James gets upset, he walks away from his teammate immediately after yelling at them, instead of resolving it there. He did it to Westbrook in the OKC series multiple times and you can see Westbrook didn't get to finish speaking as Harden is walking away from him while he is responding (although Westbrook probably deserved it, and CP is smart enough to have a productive discussion with). One of the things that Kobe always said he regretted was not making it work with Shaq, and I think it was just a maturity thing he realized later.

 

Best Rockets Team ever? REALLY?

 

As someone who watched every second of those championship teams and appreciates them tremendously, I’ll say that it’s plausible the 17-18 team was even better. We’ll never know obviously. There’s a boat load of amazing teams without rings that are of championship quality. That Harden/Paul Rockets team probably dethrones an all time great Warriors team if Paul is healthy.

I have no idea what they would do against a prime Hakeem but it’s not ludicrous to have that conversation.

 

A lin troll puts a harden moniker so no one can see through the agenda. Nice try chump

 

LOL @BallSoHarden

CP3 = reasonable

Harden = Not

yeah Dwight Howard, CP3's hamstring and non ability to live up to his contract is Harden's fault

 

This shouldn't surprise anyone unfortunately.

 

Ha nice try, I guess if you don't like hearing something you immediately call them a Lin fan. . Literally have criticized Lin more than any rocket ever, including within my last 5 posts. Must be an XYZ political candidate supporter.

 

Ha good one.

 

Wouldn't have been Hakeem....VMax. VMax gave Jordan trouble.
Suffice it to say, Capella wasn't going to do much to Olajuwon. Great bigs didn't do much to Dream at his peak.
Plus, that team won clutch games it needed to win.

 

Will Morey get him back next year

 

Different eras, different rules. If you play by 95' rules, Hakeem would be able to camp in the paint as there was no 3 seconds and that would take away a lot of drives from Harden, and Harden wouldn't have an easy time drawing fouls against Hakeem.

Furthermore there was a lot more physicality allowed on the perimeter and that would hurt both Harden and Cp3 a bit. But the real difference is on defense - where the 18' Rockets switching defense would be illegal.

Capela would be eaten alive by Hakeem - no one would be able to guard him.

Now, if you play by 2018 rules, I agree, that they would beat the '95 team. But that's the whole point, teams of different eras are built for the era, and it doesn't make a whole lot to say whom would beat whom.


That said, I do think the 2018 team would have beat Golden State and won a ring if not for CP3's injury and by that measure, beating GS, they would have been the greatest single Rockets season ever yes.

 

Kobe messed with Shaq for years concerning his weight and work ethic and there are rumors Shaq haggled Kobe for being an alleged rapist during their final season together. I'm not sure how a relationship can come back from that.

 

It’s time to let this chapter and storyline rest and sail away. Dredging up ancient history is not productive. Wish Chris well in whatever team he ends up next season because I can’t see him spending the remaining years of his career in OKC.


He will probably end up in the east or maybe Denver will trade for him as was rumoured that Gary Harris and few other assets were offered to OKC for him n the offseason.

 

Well they seemed to have reconciled their differences over the past several years, Shaq legitimately considered Kobe a brother. I wouldn't think Harden and CP3 would have let their relationship get to that point, so even more reason to believe they could have worked things out over time or just put egos aside. Whats done is done though, I would put my money on them looking back at the situation 10 years from now and being cool wither each other and reflecting on what could have been.