If what you said in that first part of the quoted comment is true, it's pretty freaking disgusting... I disagree with the playoff thing. People hated Harden before he was known for choking in the playoffs. People hated his style of play almost immediately. I think the real reason for the difference is just that Harden pioneered this iso style of play that is more common place now. Everyone hated Allen Iverson's style of play but now most small guards are just copies of Iverson and everyone is OK with it. The problem with Harden was that he always seemed close which gave him higher expectations. I think if Luka gets to 30 and he doesn't win a championship, and he's constantly close, people will have those same arguments as with Harden about playoff success.
The Mavs ain’t winnin ****. Is all I gotta say. They almost lost to the knicks before that miraculous comeback from Luka. Reminds me of the Tmac in .14 sec game.
The Foul baiting is always a crazy thing for me Luka is averaging 11.2 free throws a game Giannis is averaging about 12.5 No ever points that out Rocket River Usually some bullsh*t about the "eye test"
What I have found funny in the case of two particular podcasters, Bill Simmons and Ryen Russillo, is they want to go overboard and gush with love over Luka so bad, but they have spent years trashing the heliocentric style of basketball. Simmons even specifically stopped himself the other day in his podcast as he was heaping praise on how great Doncic is and stopped and mentioned I don’t want to be a hypocrite because I hated this style of play with Harden…
I mean it's obvious isn't it? Luka is white and Harden looks like a Hobo with that beard.. But also Luka is sponsored by Nike which owns a part of ESPN. They will always push their dudes up. Harden shoulda went to Nike and we woulda had a ring.
Haha I was waiting for a FT post like this. Harden averaged over 10 FTA in 7 of 8 years at Houston. Luka is doing that for the first year in his 5 year career. He had 7.1 and 7.5 FTA in 2021 and 2022, respectively, despite being a top 3 driver each year. Refs didn't respect his inside game until this year because they hated his whining and probably because he is white (look at Jokić vs Embiid). Refs just loved giving FTs to Harden. At least in regular season. His style of play though didn't translate to playoffs. Guess who didn't have a problem with that? Luka. I had the luxury of actually watching Harden for his whole HOU career. You just look at stats and some highlights for Luka. So I'll say it again: Tell me you don't watch Luka without telling me you don't watch Luka
Both Harden/Iverson learned from the media hero ball/iso ball GOAT from the 80's, Jordan was called a ball hog by media/fans prior to him winning his first title Some in the media back then said his ball hogging iso scoring volume style would never win a title, unti l he started winning then of course they switched it up and started nut hugging
Had they not cracked down on those players drawing those cheap fouls Luka would have probably cracked the 10 fta per game avg last year and this current season And he is Slovanian, not a coloring crayon, next time you watch Luka play put a piece of blank white computer paper next to the screen and i'll bet one bundle of debt notes his pale pinkish red skin won't match it
They cracked down on cheap fouls last year when Luka had 7 FTAs per game. A year before that, he had 7 too. And this year he has 10. So your theory is not correct. He has more FTAs this season because he plays more bully ball in the post. Not sure what did you try to say...that he is not white? Do you prefer the term "Caucasian"?
they cracked down on it last year or he would have avg more, they are easing up on it this yr and focusing more on travel/palm violations it seems, so what I posted has some merit to it either way And he is neither white nor the original so called Cauc-Asian Look up the definition of ''Free White Persons'' in law dictionary for further clarity, I told you his national pedigree was Slovanian, people have nationalities and not coloring crayon or mountain region identities Your theory is not correct
Did you just make this up? I haven't seen any evidence of overall racism by nba refs to white players. In fact, when this was studied like 15 years ago (by an independent group, later confirmed by nba research) the opposite was found to be true. The nba had a majority white refs and had more racial biased against black people. And, I think 8 or 9 years ago there was a study that racial bias was gone from nba referees. I don't think there's ever been anything showing white players were discriminated against in the nba by refs. It's probably unlikely to occur with the vast majority of nba owners being white.
It does not mean Caucasian race, Aryan race, or IndoEuropean races, nor the mixed Indo-European, Dravidian, Semitic and Mongolian peoples who inhabit Persia. Free White Person is a political legal construct and has nothing to do with skin complexion, though most of the sleepy headed masses identify people as being a color which is only heavily practiced in the modern United States of America 1776, but you have to have a nationality attached to claim this legal status. It was given to those melanin and amalgamated Europeans who came over and had no status and were granted the privilege of being a said citizen of the United States (Naturalized citizen)
Just watched Russillo go absolutely in on Trae Young for playing a brand of ball where "you stand around and wait to see if he's gonna pass to you or chuck a 40 footer" and yet Luka is basically the same player. Both barely have their teams above .500 whereas Harden would drag the Rockets to 50 wins most years.
Damn you like to take things out of context so much...yet when others do it with Harden, you explode (you = some or a lot of users on clutchfans) 1. Harden's greatest accomplishment, Finals, he did it as 3rd best player. Give me a break.This is also the answer to Rocket river. 2. Luka never had the team Harden had in the playoffs (exception: the Asik/Parsons/Lin team with 1st round exit). Harden had Howard and then Chris Paul. 3. Harden always fizzled out in playoffs except when he wasn't the main man, which was in OKC and then when he had CP3 and went 4-3 against GSW. 4. Luka had the misfortune of running into Clippers twice, who were built to stop him with Kawhi and PG, and he still had best playoff PPG of all time and went 4-3 in 2nd try. Only superhuman performance by Kawhi saved the Clippers. Meanwhile, Harden faced Utah Jazz two times in first round - basically the ideal matchup for the Rockets. 5. Luka always raises his game in the playoffs. Harden always lowers his. Having said that, I was and am a big fan of Harden still. But I also try to be objective, and as someone who has watched nearly all HOU games when harden was there + all Mavs games with Luka, I think my opinion can be informed more than most people here. And I will say Harden's prime regular season years are still better than whatever Luka did so far in RS, but in the playoffs Luka showed more.
