Lol...okkayyyyyyy Now when he does it, out of rhythm and it's just a clear attempt at garnering a whistle, sure and he's been called for it too. But when he's passing a pick, as a lefty where most would be right handed, gets the hand in the cookie jar and raises up? That's a foul on the defender. I think the big difference, aside from his innate talent and ability to see this coming, is that he's left handed and the defender is dragging the shooting arm instead of what would normally be the offhand that most ballhandlers would use as a shield anyway. Just because it's kinda cheap doesn't mean it's not a foul...
What I'm talking about is the hook of the arm only. All that other stuff where he raises up when he catches defenders hands that hit him are fouls I know that already. But any of those times where he literally hooks the arm first and then tries to make a move is a foul on him
Yeah, the hooking the arm thing is indefensible. Harden loses a lot of respect from the regular fans due to his foul call chasing ways, and even as a Rockets fan, you can't really deny that sometimes it borders on offensive foul.
From Zach Lowe's latest 10 things.... 7. 'Round-the-corner shooting fouls This bull-poopy shooting foul has officially become an epidemic: The ball-handler goes around a pick, feels a defender's forearm on his hip, and spasms up some barfy pseudo-shot in hopes of stealing three bogus free throws. James Harden mastered this, but everyone gets it now. Jeff Teague dry-heaves his way into one every night. Jeff Teague! Stop calling this a shooting foul. Shooting fouls exist to punish contact that occurs during the act of shooting. The contact on these plays happens while the offensive player is dribbling. By the time he rises to "shoot," the defender has already removed his hand -- "nothing to see here!" -- in panic. The shot that follows isn't really a shot, anyway. It's a trick. It's barely a basketball play. Call a hand-check and move on. (Some officials are onto this already.) I still worry officials won't call this in the playoffs costing us about 4-6 points a game (Lou and James)
I'm surprised it has taken this long for officials to be "onto this". Maybe James and Lou should rely on their other skills besides tricking officials into those BS whistles. There's no way any fan would be cool with it if it was being done by another team's player.
