RealGM

I'm sure a few of you guys have me on an ignore list, some I've gone back and forth with, and last year really took my dislike for Harden to another level.

Before last season I didn't think much about Harden either way. But it started, for me, with Russell Westbrook.

As a Cavs fan, I can easily identify with the Thunder's situation last season. When you have a generational talent like KD (and another star in Westbrook), I'm sure OKC fans were sure that at some point they would get an NBA title. But KD left - and it instantly made me empathize with OKC and specifically, Westbrook. Then the season started, and both he and Harden came out of the gate playing well. I've only watched a few games of Harden's over the years - but last year I caught more than I had in the past, and I didn't like the method Harden seemed to use to draw fouls. Then, almost at the same time, I saw numerous threads in which fans of the Rockets and Warriors were bashing Westbrook - the motivation seemed to be the MVP discussion. With my new fondness for Westbrook and OKC, I jumped in to defend him at times.

I tried to check myself last year - "hating" on anyone or anything is something that I don't like (besides the Seahawks) and takes too much energy. But the East was not good last year, and I found myself defending the Cavs because I felt like Spurs, Rockets and Warriors fans were attempting to diminish what the Cavs might accomplish that year by belittling the East - there's some validity to that, obviously - but no fan likes a preemptive "well it doesn't matter what your team accomplishes this year because their competition sucks".

I find myself now at a crossroads - and I'm choosing to stop the hate. This thread - this post - is to help hold myself accountable. There's no reason for me to dislike Houston, and every reason to root for them over the Warriors or Spurs in the West - which is what I will be doing going forward.

I hope that the Cavs and Rockets meet in the finals - although at this point that's not looking too likely for the Cavs - congrats on the awesome season so far!

A lot of the Westbrook/Harden hate was the fact that Harden was a more efficient player, while Westbrook was generally getting his triple doubles due to teammates gifting him rebounds. He doesn't average 10 rebounds a game without Adams and company boxing out rebounds for him, without attempting to get the ball. It was silly to overlook this gaming of the system to get double digits for a bunch of fantasy points, when in reality it didn't make a difference in the W/L columns. Plus the significantly better record meant a lot more to the team than pointless stats.

I also didn't like how all the OKC/Westbrook fans were tearing down teammates and berating them constantly last season. "Oladipo sucks! Roberson can't hit the broad side of a barn! Get Russ some help! Kanter sucks!" were all arguments in favor of his MVP candidacy for some reason. We see now Oladipo was held back by Russ, and clearly he wasn't helping them develop. People who watched games could see what he was doing that was detrimental to his teammates, and it wasn't creating a positive winning attitude. Now this year, Roberson goes down and all those same people are seeing the wheels come off the OKC wagon, but last year he was a detriment to the team? Yeah, right... He's not a good shooter, we know that, but he's not non-contributor either.

The other big issue was that Russ was just being a poor teammate when hunting for stats. There were several games he was positioning for a 10th rebound in the last minute, and lapsed on defensive duties only to let his man get a game winning shot attempt. That sort of selfishness should not be rewarded, much less crowned the MVP.

Well said Morty, Lord of Tacos.

Well said indeed.