Sure, but then he would've won one as Robin, not Batman. On the GOAT list, it wouldn't elevate him past anyone who led his team to a title.
except harden is more accomplished than embiid as a player this isnt like drexler and hakeem harden at his best like we saw the first few sixers games he was averaging a box plus minus of 15, compared to embiid 7.7
I love how you guys ( & even the national media) sh*t on Harden when the Rockets had their most playoff success in his prime since Dream. They had won one playoff series in 15 years before he got here. Did he win a chip? Nope. And he may never get one, there’s a ton of greats even HOFs that don’t have one. You can see that Father Time is gaining on him too. At 32, he’s on the tail end of his prime. He’s played a ton of NBA minutes. But the Rockets have only two titles in their history and haven’t won one since 1995. That’s 27 years. The organization has to take it on the chin for that. If winning the chip is the only criteria for success, y’all must really hate all Rockets players except the ones from 94-95. Because all of the other Rockets players are losers. They either didn’t make the playoffs or got their behinds kicked when they got there.
It's not. Yao didn't come close to winning a title, but he was a fan favorite. He embodied everything we wanted in a star. He kept his head down, worked hard, improved his game, and got along with his teammates. As a Rockets fan, do you really not understand how easy it is to dislike Harden? He was unable to get along with any of his star teammates, and whenever the star teammates were eventually moved, the Rockets were always worse off. Plus, since his foul-baiting game was poorly suited for the playoffs, it was obvious that we needed a second star.
HardenVolumeOne is constantly blaming liberals for hating Harden and traffics in homophobic conspiracy theories. I'd actually call him far right, like Farrakhan. When will people realize that just because you disagree with someone, it's not always because they're liberal/conservative. One of the things that I like about this forum is I can agree with people on basketball that I disagree with politically.
So we’re getting back into the try hard awards, which is subjective at best. They were worse after the CP3 trade but better after axing Howard who wanted post touches.(gawd). Plus, you’re getting into something else with Yao. The NBA media was NEVER going to go after Yao for not winning. They were NEVER going to call Yao an injury prone bum who couldn’t get it done in the playoffs because the NBA wouldn’t stand for it. It wasn’t because he tried hard, it’s because they had too much money on the line. Same reason Lebron shut up about that Nike human rights— ish. TMac took his share of hot criticism and rightfully so ( just as Harden deserves his share) but the NBA wasn’t ever going to allow Yao ti get the same treatment. No scathing criticism at all. The NBA treated Yao with care.
The band was breaking up my friend. Morey, D’Antoni ,Tad Brown were all quitting anyways. Westbrook wanted out. Plus Tillman didn’t want to pay a premium for a head coach or the luxury tax so he essentially quit. So he’s basically responsible for the product being a bottom feeder right now. You should be pissed at him too. Tillman quit on your team and your city.
Really? After losing Howard, we eventually lost to the Spurs without Kawhi Leonard or Tony Parker. A team with only Harden was the definition of "pretender". No, you're getting into something else with Yao. I'm looking at him as a player and nothing else. You don't think Yao tried hard? Wasn't he playing through an undiagnosed stress fracture in his foot at one point in the playoffs? Didn't he get better year after year?
So Did the Spurs win because their Hall of Fame coach got the team he had available on the floor (with Aldridge and other veterans) to play better? Or was it that James, who didn’t play well, didn’t try hard enough? But when Yao lost, well he tried hard. He’s not held to the same standard. Yao was apart of one playoff series win his whole career. So what do you call a team with only Yao on the floor? Pretender or Contender? And I like Yao.
Use whatever reason you want. We had no chance of winning a title with only Harden. We would've never intentionally built a team (as a finished product) with Yao as the only star. He was capable of co-existing with other stars.
Olajuwon, Duncan, and Dirk have won titles without star teammates. But that's besides the point. At least with Dwight, we had a puncher's chance. With only Harden, we had no chance.
You’re right which is why the organization has to build a championship team and not try to win with one guy. Plus Dream, Duncan & Dirk were better players than Harden. Dwight won a chip as a backup. He wasn’t going to pair with anyone as a co- star and to win a chip. With Dream and Dirk, How many big shots were hit by guys who were star role players?( Cassell, Horry, Elie , Maxwell, Smith..) It took the whole team playing at an all-time high level. Those guys took and made some huge shots. Doesn’t happen very often. And Dream got Drexler the next year. Duncan has always had star players with him ( Robinson, Parker, Ginobli etc….and a Hall of Fame coach. The Spurs were awesome at maximizing his career. So he was never alone.
Are you forgetting that Dwight led the Magic to the finals at one point? What's your point? That championship teams have role players who hit big shots? That's a given regardless of the number of stars. Paxson, Kerr, Horry, Fisher... NBA history is littered with championship teams whose role players have hit big shots. Also, what is a "star role player"? Did you just make that up? Robinson was on the verge of retirement. Parker was in his 2nd year. Ginobili was a rookie. How many points did Popovich score that year? 2003 Duncan was surrounded by role players.