I suppose you're going to maintain the refs didn't have it in for him when he was with Dallas? LOL .... maybe that's a bad choice of gifs?
if the celts keep having opponents lose impactful players, their 53-win a**** might earn the right to get curbstomped by the west rep in the finals!
Bulls are fighting back but Butler has to actually work for his shots. Rondo was setting him up nicely.
The "Beat LA!" chants in Utah for the Clippers are a little disrespectful. Those chants belong to us for all time, the Clippers aren't worthy of them.
James Harden shot better and outplayed Russell this game, but OKC still won because Russell finally had a teammate help.
You don't have to agree with me, it's an opinion. I said I am not a fan of how he plays the game. Those comparisons are silly though, Haren plays FOR the whistle, those players took opportunity to get to the line when it was available, they didn't try and get there on every other possession with flopping and jumping and diving into other players. What makes it worse is that he's talented enough that he doesn't have to play this way to be great. If he played semi-normal I wouldn't complain, but he's a flopper and it's pathetic, as is the refs buying into it for his entire career. It's like they're part of the plot to pump up his stardom.
There is a reason there are flopping compilations for specific players, like LeBron, CP3, Harden. You would be hardpressed to find one for Jordan. Or Kobe. Or Shaq. Or Duncan.
I specifically said that move, not every time. And I've still yet to see any evidence to why they would pick him of all people.
and i've yet to see evidence presented suggesting that harden doesn't get ridiculous favoritism from the officials. attempting to change the argument to proof of conspiracy is, again, a logical problem. your goal as a harden defender is to explain that his FT rate is justified because he's an unstoppable force, the likes of which the league has never seen, not to scoff at conspiracy theories. i don't need to explain why, only that his game is predicated on free throws, many of which are completely undeserved and would not be (are not) awarded to other players. you said he shot 10 FTs when he first started (and averaged 25). go back and look at real superstars over the course of time--most hit that level only AFTER scoring big for a few years, and nobody depended upon it as heavily as harden. note that he rarely has a big scoring game without approaching 20 FTAs. making fun of people's search for reasons doesn't invalidate the general premise. unless you're going to do that, i'm not sure what your role is here.
My "goal" here is show the other side of ref babies, like you. I already said he gets star treatment. You're saying that he gets super, duper star treatment, " the likes of which the league has never seen. Except every other leader in FTA has had pretty much the same numbers. What % of his fts bogus? Should be easy since he gets ten a game. So 30%, 50% all of them? Nobody has offered even the slightest of explanations why the NBA decided he was the next Kobe. If he's getting all the calls that others don't, that qualifies as a conspiracy. See, the way a debate works, is if you suggest a premise, you have to back it up with some claim, that being that JH is an league made star. Once again. I don't like him, I hate his total lack of effort on D, the flopping etc. But to suggest that he'd be a border line allstar, if that is asinine. Next time he plays, we'll count how many of shot fouls are legit, questionable or flat out b*******. And then compare the other star's, RW. I'm betting it not near as lopsised, if at all, as you think. If I'm wrong, even based on a one game sample, I'll never talk about the refs again, and someone can change my avatar to whatever they want, for a whole month. Because I'm honestly sick of defending a player who I can't stand because I hate people who blame the rers all the time.
I mean I think people provided empirical data for you that Harden has had unprecedented FT attempts over the last few years. Harden over the last three years has averaged 847.33 FTas per game. This year he had 881 FTas. Westbrook's over the last three years: 689 FTa averaged. His high was this year at 840 which skews the data dramatically. LeBron James, the King (of star treatment): 364 FTa averaged. Never over 400 FTas per game. Chris Paul: 303 FTas averaged Dwayne Wade from 05-07 (his highest 3 year total): 700 FTas. Kobe Bryant from 06-08 (his highest 3 year total): 776.33 FTas. Michael Jordan from 87-89 (his highest 3 year total): 875 FTas. (buoyed by the 87 season when he had 972 FTas. Furthermore in 8 seasons, James Harden has lead the league in FTas 4 times and FTms 3 times. Russell Westbrook has never lead in either category. LeBron James has lead in FTas just once in 14 seasons. Chris Paul has never lead in either category. Dwayne Wade has never lead in either category. Kobe Bryant lead the league in FTm twice and FTa once in 20 seasons. Michael Jordan lead FTm twice and FTa once in 15 seasons. There is nobody in the history of modern basketball that has gotten to the FT line as much or as consistently as James Harden.