If James had a side deal and played on one leg (risking his career) and they won't pay him then I'm not mad at him at all. Let other free agents know how Morey rolls.
It seems that everywhere James goes he ends up completely burning the house down in one way or another. After a while, you run out of excuses and the common thread is you.
The crowd probaly was orchestrated to cheer everything Harden said. If Harden said Putin is a liar, they would cheer.
The fact that he did this in China of all places, where Morey is passionately hated, is the ultimate heel move
That is overplayed, the average Joe does not know him or care about this at all, only those that watched Harden, the Rockets and NBA.
I guess I don't like all the assuming about what Daryl "promised" to James. What I can believe (but have no idea -- wasn't in the room) would go something like this: Daryl: "Sign this for now, and we'll always take care of you." (Thinking: above market rate; good contracts) James: "That's what I'm talking about." (Thinking: max extension) * they shake hands, make hush sign to one another, then turn their cell phones back on *
How did Harden "burn the house down" in Houston? If you recall, the Rockets started falling apart well before Harden gave up on the team. The common thread appears to be Tilman in our case.
That is probably worth a discussion who was the main arsonists but James learned from it and has been doing that ever since.
I don't think it's clear what happened in Brooklyn, but given how flagrantly toxic Kyrie appears from the outside looking in, and that Durant comes with his own issues, too, it seems like there were some very strong personalities at play there (not to mention major injury issues going all around). I don't know how you can be so sure James was the problem. Similarly, none of us really know what happened in Philly, either. But James again seemed to be doing his job unassumingly until this video was posted.
Tilman sucks but that does not mean James' exit from Houston was smooth and not entirely his doing. He's forced his way out of a team 3 times in like 4 years. Must be everyone is a problem but him eh?
See my above post. Philly is the only situation that remains unexplained, and where I'm reluctant to give James the benefit of the doubt, but it's not difficult for me to see why Harden wanted out of both Houston and Brooklyn. And yeah, I don't think he was anything close to the root cause of the problem in either of those situations. EDIT: I guess I shouldn't say it's the only situation that's unexplained... None of us really know what happened on any of these teams. But I think we know enough about Houston's and Brooklyn's situation at the time to know there were some major issues with those teams outside of Harden's control.
There is a fine line for sure but I doubt people in here meaning he burns houses literally.....figuratively speaking of course. And he is at least someone who does not give a ball club enough time to react. Now he has peaked/declined and teams know it and can play the waiting game now on him. Block him from playing ball even. Fans of his or his ex fans would always find excuses for him, it does not matter.
I don't blame him for not giving teams time when he joins them as a 30+ superstar who was over the hill, joining other veteran superstars with the goal of winning immediately, yet they start moving the wrong direction when they fall short. He gave Houston tons of time to get it together in his youth... and for years, the best that got him was a washed, injury prone, overrated Dwight. Then Tilman traded by far the best sidekick he ever had (Chris Paul) for possibly the single worst "star" player of my lifetime. Granted, yes, Harden probably had to approve of that trade, but by most reasonable accounts, it wasn't his idea. Finally he lost his patience. I don't think Harden is perfect, and I do think the last few years haven't been a great look for him in some ways (including his state as a basketball player)... But I also think it's easy to empathize with his dissatisfaction with most of these teams.
The idea that the Rockets failed James is laughable. I loved him, but the dude couldn't hack it. Plain and simple.
This post is completely empty by my measure. You're gonna have to define "hacking it". Harden was the second best player in franchise history, and he put pen to paper in every way we could reasonably ask. Nobody in the NBA could beat the Durant Warriors (and nobody in the West could beat the Warriors even without Durant), especially with the refs on their side, but Harden came closer than anyone else ever did (and probably would have won if not for Scott Foster and/or Paul's injury). How exactly could he "not hack it"? I would say it's true that Harden was given subpar teams until the acquisition of Chris Paul. He did great things with average players up until that point (and then he did INCREDIBLE things with great players). EDIT: To be fair, I don't think it's that the Rockets weren't trying their damnedest to get Harden help. And I do think Morey is a great GM, and they found decent pieces. So it may not be fair to say they "failed" him (which is why I didn't use that language in the post you're replying to), but I do think they ultimately did not get him enough help for most of his time in Houston.
