I met Clyde Drexler a year or so after he came back to Houston in the 90's and I'll say that between him and Ken Caminiti(Who I believe Kenny Powers is based off of), I have to say they were the most rude pro athletes I have ever met. I guess with Caminiti it sort of makes sense now knowing more about his personal life, but Clyde you wouldn't think in a million years that he would be rude to a teenage fan just trying to get an autograph. Then, about 2 years after that, I saw Clyde again and he was very nice, signed the hat I had on with a big smile on his face, and shook my dad's hand with a big smile on his face. Look, these guys are star athletes, but they are still human. Sometimes they just want to have a quiet dinner, and a piece of cheesecake in peace. Oh, and by the way, its VERY plausible that the food & service were bad that night at Cheescake factory, one of the busiest & touristy restaurants in Houston.
Hopefully just a bad night....on another note, I met omer asik and the dude is super nice. Je even asked my friend who took the picture of us if he wanted a picture too.
I used to go to that Cheesecake Factory at the Galleria a few times when I was in college. Didn't notice any bad service. The food was decent. Wasn't aware that place has a bad rep until today.
Given how good the business is, I wouldn't listen to what CF has say about Cheesecake Factory. Next your hear Harden went Kolache for breakfast and sure your get list people who bash that chain because they don't like it.
Cheesecake Factory: generally terrible service, overpriced/overtinkered with food, quantity-over-quality restaurant. Not sure why Harden would go there given it's touristy/oblivious consumer clientel.
It's nice to meet "famous' people like that. I had a similar experience in that I was taking a picture of Bill Murray and some friends. He stopped me and asked his friend take the picture so I could be in it. Unfortunately, that's I'm afraid those types of people are less common than we'd think
The guy has probably signed thousands of autographs in his life. I don't think it's unreasonable for them to expect a little consideration from people when they're eating or hanging out with their friends. I imagine when he's dropping a few grand at a strip club the ladies there think he's a model customer.
It actually makes sense to think Harden's an egotistical guy. If he was a backseat player like Bosh, he'd have taken the slightly less than max OKC was offering and be their 3rd fiddle for his entire career. Instead, he told Presti to shove it and ended up leading his own team. As a Rockets fan, I'm glad he's very full of himself and feels like he's the man. If only T-Mac had that mentality, we might've gone a bit further in the playoffs in the past decade.
Well, people say your true colors will show when you talk to someone "below" you especially waiters and other service people. Sad you guys are ripping the OP for a negative story on our player. Grow up. A good basketball player does not equal a good person. Stop defending Harden. He doesn't need little groupies to defend him.
He's here to beast on the court. We won't have any personal relationship with him any way. Its not as if we never complain ourselves. I've been rude to some people in the past and i don't average 26ppg in the nba. Point is, it doesn't define a person. We all have our bad days. For what its worth, i don't like threads like these.. its meant to ruin a person's character and credibility based on a petty incident which we aren't even sure if its true or not.
I wonder if you'd still say the same thing if the OP was talking about your brother or your sister. Ever thought about that?
I think the only thing people are saying is that a rush to judgement based on one single incident or a guy having a bad day.
Agree with: this can't be confirmed, though Cheesecake Factory there not necessarily known for consistently having good overall service, we place way too much value in celebrities and irrationally equate celebrities/famous individuals with "better people", that dealing with lots of fans can be tough, that people have different personalities, that he could be full of himself like most accomplished players but he can back it up.. also agree that who cares if he has an ego, as long as he plays well, he's doing his job (but there might be a problem is if he is hard for teammates to play with, which i don't think is the case.. i think it's obviously a win-win situation for your teammates to be motivated to help you out and play well.. but it seems like he's selective in who he wants to hang with in general, which is true for most people.. and he has to deal with constant fanfare). And sure, the strippers are happy --> $$ Given all that, I would not be surprised and think that the way he played at the beginning of the season trying to take many shots (ill-advised or not) himself, hogging the ball, and not really making an effort to move off the ball... reflect the general sense of egotism and perhaps coming off as rude that is discussed in this thread. Yes, of course, he wanted to prove that he was worth the contract, so he thought he would have to show it and make things happen if team offense wasn't working just yet. It's not a bad thing (of course, in hindsight, things have eventually improved); just the way it is, but wonder if there's any stubborn-ness that hinders future development of other players and the team. Perhaps the wait at the restaurant really was long. I think people can say this doesn't matter, and it probably shouldn't, but by how long this thread is, we are all still interested in this type of thing, and love to comment on this stuff with others.. tell our friends, post about it, etc.. We just place too much value and focus on celebrities as a society. Spectator culture, we of course want to watch and want to hear about our apparent heroes.