>showed growth throughout his carreer (role guy to top scorer to floor general)>has aged well, still balling at almost 37>looks like an all time player in the regular season>this guy clearly loves basketball and takes care of himself>come playoff time>he starts doing weird shit>sometimes it looks like he doesn't care >his disinterest spreads in his teams like a cancer>do this guy even like playing ball?This has to be one of the weirdest guys to ever play basketball. It's some Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde shit. If you only saw him in the regular season you'd think he's the best shooting guard of all time offensively but then in the playoffs he's off. Case to study
>>153979667he's just MVP of beardscan't win chip with young Durantwon't win chip with old Durant
>>153979667ballhogs who never ever tried to defend and always wanted the team to serve them instead serving the team themselves, tend to not win any shit (except when they manage to land a seat in the us national team, then they will be carried to some olympic medals)
>>153979667He's a classic case of an underachiever. He has superstar talent but never outgrew his role player mentality. Very much like AI, T-Mac, and Penny who were all exceptional talent hampered by poor attitudes and work ethics
Harden is weird because other than game 7s where he chokes a dair bit hes not even much of a playoff dropper. Hes had many excellent performances and it feels like he truly loves basketball. But (as you said) its like at any random point hes like "man fuck this shit" and just stops trying, straight up quits, gets eliminated and goes back to partying and touring strip clubs.All time talent, probably top 40 of all time, but in terms of mentality hes not top 1000.He seems chill as fuck though so ill forgive him for 2017-2019
>>153979667I've always thought that for guys like Harden who play a cheesy, rule-exploiting type of basketball that's not technically against the rules but against the spirit of the game, there's a kind of inevitable reckoning point where they have to just stop trying to weasel their way to cheap points and just play straight for once. And they can't do it. If you've been playing with cheat codes active for the whole season having to do without them in the highest-pressure situations is unlikely to end well. He's a talented guy but without the clutch gene. Almost as likely to shart himself in a big game as to play well. So if he's the best guy on your team you have a ceiling.
>>153986072Let me tell you about the reigning fmvp..
>>153986125Shai is a free throw merchant, too and it's honestly shameful how the league indulges him but I think the difference is if the refs arbitrarily stop giving bullshit calls for a half or whatever he doesn't get that "oh fuck now what" vibe and start just bricking threes or not shooting at all like Harden does.Still fuck him. No one should be rewarded for playing like that
some doos just cant into pressure when it matters
>>153986322Honestly, we kind of take it for granted how many people can. Athleticism + coordination and the ability to tune out pressure are on two separate skill trees and one does not imply the other. Just look at Harden, Westbrook, Embiid, or going further back, Chris Webber, Nick Anderson....I'm amazed we don't see more pro athletes buckle under pressure. I know I'd be tripping if I had to any job with like 20,000 people staring at me waiting for me to fuck up. I get twitchy of one person is staring at me, Maybe the really susceptible dudes get filtered out by the time they finish college
Towards the end of Internet forums existing, I was on one with about four people and one guy had James Harden as his profile picture. I've always been curious about him as a result, because he is not a household name among people who know nothing about basketball, and sometimes people talk about him like he's great and then he just vanishes and I don't hear about him again for like two years at a time. I don't follow basketball at all, so I don't understand how one player can be universally agreed to be quite good and yet simultaneously be utterly irrelevant. He's a bit like Allen Iversen in that respect.
>>153986528The only active nba players who were well known a decade ago in germany were dirk, lebron and kobe. Steph kd and harden were tier 2. Rest were unheard of unless you were into the sport
>>153986125>>153986254SGAy ran because Ames Haren walked. Both are fucking garbage and should be ashamed of themselves for ruining basketball.
>>153985725>a dair bitHe scores like 6 or 8 points, when he's average is 20 or more
>>153985684you besmirch AI again I will find and kill you and your family, on God.
>>153986939his*
>>153986550>WE DONT KNOW BALL IN GERMANYshut the fuck up kraut
>>153986963Seethe
>>153986322Thank yoi for saving basketball JJ. Barea
