Whether or not you're okay with James Harden's extracurricular activities and the consequences that follow, can we just take a breath? I get if the media dislikes him. I get if fans from other teams dislike him. What I don't understand is how there can be so much hate generated from the Rockets fan base of how he's conducted himself. You have posts like these: Your example about a normal guy with a job is good...but not in the right direction. Harden missing practices is like the normal guy missing an early-morning team briefing but still showing up to work after the briefing and doing his job until clock out. While missing a meeting is not optimal, it's not detrimental to the work day. Harden missing practice(s) is not optimal, but won't have any bearing on regular season games, considering there's the preseason. Despite how irresponsible Harden was, you're asking him to be suspended for, I suppose, some regular season games. By missing practice(s), he's already behind on developing chemistry with a revamped roster; and you want to mitigate this by...by making him miss more opportunities to develop chemistry with a revamped roster? It's hard to think of a justifiable 'punishment;' I guess one thing would be to fine him or something. But I don't know if the players get paid for practices. As a fan, you're failing to prioritize the team. Harden missing games hurts the Rockets. The man is going to miss some practices already, which is the proper course of action. Not wearing a mask in a large social gathering is completely irresponsible, there's no doubt...but there's no actual crime against not wearing a mask. Speaking of practices, the man is going to miss a few of them. Not a pre-season game. Not a regular season game. Not a playoff game. A couple of practices. Yet every poster in the partying threads that hate on Harden is acting like the dude is about to miss the entirety of the NBA Finals or something. When he's shown up out of shape before, what were his stats like? Everyone points to Harden's partying being so detrimental to something...what part of his on-court performance has been affected by his off-court lifestyle? The reason I bring this up isn't to disparage naysayers or defend Harden. But Harden hasn't given anyone any reason to suspect that his game will suddenly be completely trash after his off-court activities. Players arguably at or above Harden's level: Giannis, LeBron, Curry, AD, Kawhi. Despite being "out of shape," he's still one of the top 5-6 basketball players in the world. Even if his whole life was completely dedicated to strictly basketball, he's not going to grow another half foot to be as tall, nor grow out his wingspan to be as dominant defensively, as Giannis or AD. He's not going to be able to shoot the 3 like Curry. He'll never have the intangibles of LeBron or play defense like Kawhi. A couple of practices isn't going to magically grant Harden the skills of those other players. tl;dr - Were Harden's actions irresponsible? Yes. Does he deserve criticism? Yes. But some of you posters are hating way too hard on a sports figure who's never tried to be a role model. This situation deserves to be looked at, but it's being blown way out of proportion right now. Still too long and still didn't read? Until Harden shows that his on-court performance is directly impacted by his off-court extracurriculars, some of you posters need to give the man the benefit of the doubt. I'll eat crow if that happens, but the man (who is human, by the way) has done enough to get the benefit of the doubt.
Harden has to be perfect 100 percent of the time and live his life by other people's standards.................according to some fans, who have never been in the position he is in
James is just like Wilt, a legend on and off the court. What we're seeing is a modern day feeding frenzy...with an agenda laden media. They want him on the East or West coast.(also GM manipulations) And in an age of technology...... Take it as a compliment. He's a top 10 all time player.
I blame social media. It's turned everyone into drama queens. Gotta either totally love or totally hate someone or something. No gray area permitted.
When you have POVs like "...if he was married, this wouldn't have happened" or "the dude is going to be out of shape" after missing like a practice or two, it's hard not to scoff at that end of the spectrum. At the same time, there's shouldn't be total love for him either. He didn't exercise common sense when that's what's needed the most.
I totally agree with your point. The only reason why I am disappointed is that if other players who are not fighting for a contract show up on time and put in the work, why can't he? I'll calm down while I hope and pray that he proves me wrong this season.
Because he doesn't need to be? The man is a known gym rat and hard worker already. Harden is known for this. He parties hard and works harder. The man is known for putting in hours not just into practicing, but into developing his craft. MVP caliber players don't get better each year by not putting in work. To sit there and type out that nonsense is the epitome of idiocy.
Exactly. Life is all in the middle of the spectrum, not at the ends. Harden can render all this nonsense moot by focusing now that he's here.
Wow, I can't have an opinion of my own? Why can't you be like @Juxtaposed Jolt and voice out your disagreement with my post in a civil manner rather than calling my post an "epitome of idiocy". Like I said, I could be wrong and I am more than happy to eat crow if he does well this year. As a matter of fact, I badly want to be wrong. I care for this team as much as the next Rockets fan and it sucks to see our franchise player be this way while last year's MVP who I hate btw, is with his team practicing even though it is his birthday weekend.
Lol think you overreacted a bit there. All dude said in the post you quoted was that he's disappointed Harden didn't show up on time to work when others did.
Wilt cracked the 1000 mark and eventually it killed him. I’m hoping Harden never goes down that path.
Btw, here's my original post. I ain't got nothing against Harden partying and enjoying his life. But show up when it really matters and be an example to his teammates.
Don't sell the stilt short brother. 20,000! Someone did the math and I forget but it was some crazy number of women per day.
I haven't read the entire thread yet, but on a scale of 1 to 10, I think it's an 8.5... basically it's an FU to all his teammates. He has a new coach that he hasn't even spoken to, and a new point guard. That's the two people that run the show during a game, and it takes reps to get into a flow. The NBA happens to be a fairly competitive job... these are the things that put you over the top. I seem to recall we've been just shy of a championship multiple times, so at the end of the year when we fall just short again, this is the kind of thing you can look back on. I work at a small company in a competitive business, and this is more like not showing up for the kickoff meeting for the most important project we've ever had. It's not grounds for firing, but it's definitely the kind of thing where you have a meeting afterwards, tell the person they F'd up, and tell them what you expect of them in the future. If they keep doing the same type of thing, you eventually fire them.
If he did that in the army that’s straight to a military prison in solitary confinement.Some work conditions have zero tolerance indeed.
