This site is owned and operated by a credentialed media member. 5 threads on the front page right now are about media generated content. You are not disentangling the two it just can't happen.
Fun fact. While working in Phoenix in 2014-2015, I was in our company cafeteria. A Jazz fan, who I really didn't know, found out i was a Rockets fan and came at me big time about Harden (and Howard) and how dirty of a franchise the Rockets are. I just kept calling him a parrot. He didn't know the names of Rockets bench players when I could name every rotation player in the league. He just parrots what the media told him about everything. Parrot. He got so mad that he actually went to HR and had them call me down to meet him and apologize. That was a huge "is this real life?" moment since he was a stranger to me, and an instigator.... and.. sports. I didn't apologize, I explained that sometimes people disagree about things and sometimes what you are told is true is wrong. More arguments ensued. No love lost there. What a weirdo.. The media is a helllluva drug for people in sports (and everything else).
Good memory! What a time to be alive. No, that was in 2017. Haha. That was the year my career found me moving directly in to Jazz territory. Fortunately the tech company I currently work at is mostly engineering nerds who don't know what sports are. I'll take that.
Your story illustrates why Rockets fans hate the Jazz. Going to HR is such a p_ssy move. Glad you handled it the way you did.
Last minutes of Game 5 with CP3 crew, you saw the fear in the warriors eyes when they turned on their switch but couldn't shut us down. That hamstring play could've been prevented but no one gonna sit Chris Paul and mda wouldn't dream of it. I almost believed rockets would be validated there and be successful at their "troll job" on the media. Won't comment on the ref shenanigans despite grinding the regular season for HCA. What a crock of used up Major League bullshit.
I've known lots of people who dislike Harden's game. Yes he can put out lots of points but for a superstar his game lacks variety and is too repetitive to be enjoyable to watch. Not to mention all the FTs. Yes the numbers look good, but that's not the only thing that matters. Kobe's 35 point season was much more fun to watch than Harden's 36 point season.
One of my issues I have with people who say Harden is the best scorer of all time or "top 5" is that Harden's scoring is akin to Lamar Jackson scoring in the NFL. He needs a specific system to put up those historic numbers. Guys like Kobe, Jordan, Lebron, KD etc is that they are better "bucket makers". That means their bucket making isn't reliant on things like 3>2 or ftr. For example, during the last couple of possessions of a NBA game where refs swallow whistles and where you just need a point or 2 to win the where 3>2 doesn't matter, those guys are just better at getting a clean shot off. Guys like that don't have to do some sort of set dribble face up moves. No, they are masters at making shots from all angles with or without a dribble. I think Harden is definitely a top ten scored of all time. I think his scoring style is too limited to be top 5.
No one said he was the best scorer of all time. Best offensive player means points generated. If you factor in assists and the amount of double and triple teams he commands basically at half court to set up teammates. He easily better offensively than the other guys you named. I believe KD could and would be the best scorer ever if he played in a system for him. but his play making is subpar which makes Harden a better offensive player. You can't deny Harden led us to the best offensive in nba history with his iso.
You are comparing different eras of basketball. Kobe also was just flat out more fun to watch. He scored from all parts of the floor in many different ways and in his prime was a high flyer who did crazy acrobatic moves around the rim. People are just going to enjoy that style of basketball more. Kobe is more famous than Duncan and Duncan is the better player. Kobe is just fun when you watch him play.
No he didn't lead us to the best offense in NBA history. Best offenses are judged in the playoffs and the Rockets offense plummets more than pretty much every other playoff team from regular season to postseason which suggest our offense is more gimmicky than you would want to admit hence the comparison to the Ravens and Lamar Jackson. Our offense was very easy to gameplan for in a 7 game series. In the regular season where opposing teams have to face different teams every other night, they don't have time to memorize all the tendencies and actions the Rockets do on offense. In the post season they have that time and our offense is one of the most predictable in NBA history.
Yup This is a pretty clear victim complex. Harden just isn't a likeable player to the general public. There really isn't some underlying conspiracy or narrative other than that.
OP offers an outstanding example of how consuming too much media can alter your true passions and convictions, for the worse. (Cf. politics, COVID. . . .) This is the internet age. Don't consume so much media garbage simply because it is there to be consumed. One of your favorite things is being killed off, simply by crap media. American culture is bionic consumerism on steroids. Sucking up internet and TV is simply another form of consumerism.
The thing is I don’t consume that much traditional media. I don’t care at all what media thinks or says about the Rockets because I understand they’re not actually educated enough to have a valid opinion. What I’m sick of is how the media bias has shaped the reputation of this team for anyone who follows sports. I dint consider myself a major social media person, but when it comes to sports social media is a great tool to connect with other fans and talk with people you never would have about basketball. And now that’s not even fun anymore because I have to wade through the BS. Now, don’t get me wrong (and maybe I should have made this more clear in the OP), I’ll still be watching on Saturday. And I’m sure the excitement will grow. It’s just, compared to past years, I’m not absolutely stoked for the start of this season...
It's amusing that at a time when there are more disparate sources of information and media available to the public than had ever existed before - the complaints about media bias is ever popular. Complaining about the media is so common and easy that literally everyone does it. Dems, Reps, city, suburb, farms, coastal, fly over, lesbian, straight, white, black, everyone complains about how this strawman the media is against them. Maybe it's not some vast media conspiracy that's got you down. Maybe it's that you've got an owner who's book is called shut up and listen. Or that he is cheap and so repugnant that his coach, gm and star player want to leave the team. Maybe it's that your star player is acting like an entitled toddler throwing a tantrum that's making you feel bad. Perhaps the fact that he's galavanting around the country giving the figurative middle finger to every victim of covid with every make it rain party, that's annoying you. Or it's the media that's caused this. Nm that there is plethora of rockets related media or local media that supports the rocket and even many in the national media that actually likes the rockets.... It's the medias fault. Everyone complains about the media, even the media themselves. No wonder... Since it's much easier blaming a straw man than finding the real causes of a problem.
