WMC 24-25: Seasonal Highs And Lows!

Had the same reaction watching that. WTF are they afraid of to be letting him pull that disgusting crap again? They’ve got fresher, newer stars in the league so why cater to this turd?

 

Sixers played down to the competition but who knows what happened without the 9 points given by Melo to Niang in the 2nd quarter and the 3 technicals

 

i've never hated a player as much as i hate harden

and i grew up watching karl malone

 

Soften is an abomination on the court. Malone is an abomination off the court.

 

Like i said when they announced it. Few weeks into the season and it will be back to "normal". f*** this guy.

 

same. couldn't stand malone, either, but harden is just another two levels.

 

Malone you could at least respect because he put in the work and busted his a**. I actually really ended up enjoying him as a Laker because he held that season together, beat Yao, would've wrecked the Wallaces and gotten us over the hump to get that 'ship. Then the Vanessa stuff happened on his way out... that left an icky feeling.

Whereas I don't respect Beard's work ethic and "brand" of basketball at all. He goes to strip clubs, gets fat, and gets rewarded by the refs.

 

yes, king of "the other guys should do the other stuff" players. the fact that a large group of fans and media gravitated towards harden is actually a condemnation of modern society. and no, i'm not overstating that. he stands for the wrong things: guile over skill, cleverness over work, and most importantly: dishonesty and/or a complete lack of respect for truth and honor.

 

yeah, i hated malone because he was dirty and because he would kill the lakers. i remember not being sure what to think when he joined the team but i became a fan instantly. his defense on prime duncan and KG in the playoffs on one leg at age 40 was just amazing. if he doesn't get injured because of that stupid moron scott williams falling on him, that team could have very likely won it all

harden just took advantage of refs being willing to call ticky-tack fouls and made an entire career off it. wade used to do the same thing, but harden took it to another level. when he drives to the hoop his main intention is to draw a foul

 

i was going to mention wade as the real forebear for harden. he was the first guy i remember who was obviously foul-hunting on most of his drives. young ginobili was also bad in this way. those guys helped normalize whistle-hunting, and then harden came along and grotesquely perfected it. yuck.

i remember yelling at the tv: "he's not trying to score!" while announcers were praising their craftiness. if they were really crafty...they'd just put the ball in the basket.

 

yup. they would call him d-whistle for a reason

the way the refs treated wade in the 06 finals was sickening

 

To me the difference was that I don't think Wade needed the whistle in his peak. He was a great athlete and could've had a Rose like path pre-injuries. But Wade started getting very friendly calls and leaned all the way into it. But he would've been just fine without them.

Harden, without the whistles is not a good player. He's not an athlete. He doesn't play D. He can't succeed at scoring at the rim on his own. He can shoot when he's in a groove. He can pass. That's not enough to make him a top 25 player without the refs bailing him out.

 

If I were an NBA ref, I would award this bum an offensive foul for every flop and chicken wing. He keeps doing this crap because the League allows him to. It’s not basketball- it’s bad theatre.

 

I wish I could give you 10,000 “likes” for this well said post.

 

i'll never get over that one. it was nice seeing dirk get revenge on him in 2011, but dirk should have had two rings. that was a travesty.

wade didn't have a respectable jumper until after his athleticism was gone. he was quite an athlete, but without the ft line, good defenses could just wall him off. dallas did, but they just kept putting him on the line for basically no reason. in his iconic 43 point game that basically won the series, he was 11-28 from the floor and 21-25 from the ft line in a game his team won by 3 and dallas shot only 23 free throws. just gross.

as for harden, he's a skilled shooter, passer, and ballhandler and is SUPER strong, which both he and wade use(d) to their tremendous advantage (ginobili had to quit ref baiting because all the contact banged him up). i've always said that harden is very similar to prime joe johnson (except jj played defense). perennial allstar talent, but not an mvp-level player. same way i felt about wade. refs made both superstars instead of just stars.

 

So when Wenyen Gabriel and Stan Johnson can come up from the G league and make you look like a competent team. That is a definite testament to how bad (particularly on things like defense, boxing out, athleticism) that all the guys they have taken minutes from: Melo/ARiza/Baze/Ellington/Bradley. My goodness

 

Exactly. Its indicative of the other guys on the team when guys no other team wanted came here and look like saviors just by playing with energy.

 

FO decisions