James Harden: More than a beard This was a good read. I like Pablo Torre. Spoiler Here is the THTV Pod discussing the article. Amin is notorious for hating on Harden, the Rockets, Bun B, all things Houston and all things Texas. He calls Harden "the Taylor Swift to Beyonce", a button masher, that guy who tries too hard to be cool, and "the Nick Young to Kobe." Pablo Torre does a good job of keeping the Podcast intelligent despite Amin's efforts. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">THTV Pod: <a href="https://twitter.com/PabloTorre">@PabloTorre</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/SherwoodStrauss">@SherwoodStrauss</a> & moi on Harden's All-American Thirst for Fame. based off Pablo's article <a href="http://t.co/5pS4nnSNew">http://t.co/5pS4nnSNew</a></p>— Amin Elhassan (@AminESPN) <a href="https://twitter.com/AminESPN/status/653938342820614144">October 13, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Me too. Hilarious, that guy. <iframe src="https://vine.co/v/e0K6Y9bBb6W/embed/simple" width="480" height="480" frameborder="0"></iframe><script src="https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js"></script>
Great article. Harden is an oddball, but he seems genuine. People give him crap for partying and strip clubs yada yada... but geez, he's my age and is doing what I would be if I had his money. Honestly, I would be worse. Great article by Torre. He should be more recognized, he's obviously intelligent which I can't say for most of the ESPN contributors. I love listening to him on Lebatard.
i enjoyed this piece about Harden's brand even though i'm not much into personality cults. though its not long on basketball this blurb caught my attention ... the 'derision' alludes to his often criticized foul drawing ways. having the media pick MVP is a good publicity stunt, not much else ...
James Harden is more than a beard, and Ethan Strauss' "wife" is just a beard. I couldn't get past 20 minutes of that podcast.
"IF ONE WERE to envision an ideal summer afternoon for Daryl Morey, the notoriously quantitative Rockets GM, one might imagine him leaning back in a rolling office chair, loafers up on a mess of a conference-room table, savoring a loop of Harden highlights on a flat-screen while guzzling Mountain Dew. But one would be mistaken. Morey drinks only Diet Mountain Dew. "You gotta watch this play," he tells me, between sips. "This play is f-----g absurd." " best quote of the piece!
ethan struass and amin elhassin are nothing but steph curry lovers and bay area hacks... they hate harden, so does espn
Amin's argument with Harden having to try to be cool is stupid. Every fashion trend is manufactured, contrary to popular belief it sounds better to say that you didn't try to be cool but people actually put in forth a bit of effort to "trendy". There's nothing wrong with being able to sell a trademark. Spoiler
This is absolutely and undeniably true. You could sense it in the way the media was painting the MVP race. It got to a point where it didn't matter how much data showed that Harden was the MVP...Curry was the more "sellable" commodity, and the media hid behind Golden States record to support their vote. When Zach Lowe (who I'm a big fan of) said that he picked Curry over Harden for MVP, I tweeted that he needed to be consistent in 2015-2016 if GS is injured and Houston is healthy. If Curry is hitting those crazy circus shots but Golden State isn't the top seed (and Houston is), then I better not hear about how Curry deserves the MVP for "putting GS on his back".
Great read! He cried, that's a good sign. He seems really motivated and saying all the right things. Waiting for big things from the beard.
