Stephen A. Smith: "FIVE Hall of Famers texted me James QUIT!"

I think he can be the best offensive player on a championship team, but he can't be far and away the best offensive option or the sole facilitator who has to create everything...he also can't be depended on for leadership

 

I think hes mentally weak and immature and the big moment got the best of him.

 

No I don't think so.

I mean, of course he can transform and prove me wrong. But currently I do not believe Harden can get you there even if he were to have the necessary pieces around him to do so.

He's not a good enough leader and he's far too nonchalant with his attitude and deameanor as well as with how he takes care of the ball.

 

I agree with Stephen A that there should be an investigation. Check any Spurs bets in Vegas and where they came from.

That's how bad that performance was. There are bad performances. 2-15 or whatever. Then there's that. I don't know what that was. The last performance I saw that legit looked like the guy just wanted to borderline throw the game was Cam Newton in the Super Bowl.

And then you go to the club afterwards like....whatever.

 

Something happened between the end of game 5 and game 6. Locker room issues?

This was not just a choke job or a bad outing. Harden is just too good and experienced for the above to happen. We are not talking about Luther Head here.

For whatever reasons, Harden decided to just check out.

 

he didn't care. Sorry no excuses for that.

 

Obviously, buy why? He did care for all this time, preseason + 90 games.

I don't think I would be to crazy to say Harden cares more about personal glory ("I am the MVP") than team success. We harp about Westbrook being a selfish player, but Harden is no different.

 

Harden has played like that reiterated times. No need to look for random bullshit. He is like that.
I think it was a mix of overconfidence (the Rockets have come to play routinely overconfident this season) and being mentally tired of playing 1on5. Empty crowd does not help.

 

Lol. The excuses keep piling up. First off, the Rockets have a legit supporting cast. Harden's not playing 1 vs 5. Mentally tired? If thats the case shouldnt other superstars be just as tired? Nice try. The biggest sign he quit was he took ZERO shots in the 1st qtr. If you know this could be the last game of the year, and the other team's best player & defender is hurt, the LAST thing you do is not be aggressive. Harden played like he wanted to lose

 

I don't make excuses, I talk about reasons that can explain his performance better than conspiracy theories.

Harden is assuming the weight of an offense like no star aside of Westbrook. It must be hard to turn de corner and attack the rim 40 times per game knowing that Lamarcus and Pau are there waiting for you. That's a reason that can explain mental fatigue when the series are advanced. It's still your responsability to be more assertive, I won't justify his poor approach, but name a factor that does not help. As well as our poor crowd. There are more colective factors that explain the team start of game, and personal factors that explain Harden's issues.

 

Its not a conspiracy tho. He quit on his team. Do we know why? Nope. But its clear he had no intention on winning that game

Dude, those are excuses. Harden gets paid alot of money. The reason he was a mvp candidate was because he WANTED the ball more, and MDA gave it to him. He took the role & flourished all season. Since when did this become "mental fatigue"? How do you START the game fatigued? Doesnt make sense. Bottom line, he quit

 

Drops the mic

 

dude as long as the media votes on the mvp award, harden was never gonna win it. You should have figured that out when they left him off all-nba last year

 

Harden doesn't strike me as a fierce competitor.

I'm sure he wants to win and he works hard, but I just don't think losing makes him burning mad.


Harden just wanna have fu-un....