Durant says that Harden is underappreciated

[Mr. E]

http://www.chron.com/sports/rockets/article/Kevin-Durant-says-Rockets-James-Harden-8871337.php

At a team practice at Toyota Center before tomorrow nights final Team USA exhibition against Nigeria Kevin Durant offered some words of support and some harsh words for Harden's critics.

"Nobody really appreciates what he does except for the players in our league," Durant said. "Everybody on the outside doesn't really appreciate what he brings. Anybody that can put up 29 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and not make the All-NBA team, that's like a sin to even think about not putting a guy like that on the All-NBA team.

"As a player and someone that played with him and a fan of the game I was (angry) because somebody is right here in front of you and you can't appreciate him. If he were to retire tomorrow, we would have so many stories and videos about how great he is, but he's here right now doing it. Appreciate what he brings."

It doesn't quite fit with the internet narrative that everyone hates Harden.

[texasholdem]

And yet Durant ruled out signing with the rockets almost immediately.

Hard to believe anything Durant says after he supposedly told Westbrook he would stay in okc.

[K_chile22]

And yet Durant ruled out signing with the rockets almost immediately.

Hard to believe anything Durant says after he supposedly told Westbrook he would stay in okc.

Well he didn't say that, that was Royce Youngs saltiness. Everytime someone leaves okc he says a bunch of negative things about them like Harden, Reggie Jackson, and now KD. KD said he never said that then Royce Young backtracked hard after he got called out and said he meant to say KD had given Russ the impression he would stay. Royce Young sucks when it comes to former Thunder players
http://m.newson6.com/story.aspx?story=32558576&catId=112042

Also he probably ruled us out because we were so bad last year


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[The_Hater]

And yet Durant ruled out signing with the rockets almost immediately.

Hard to believe anything Durant says after he supposedly told Westbrook he would stay in okc.

Nothing you wrote is a reason to disregard his opinion.

[dice]

yeah, and the players voted harden mvp over curry in 2014-2015. shows what they know

[K_chile22]

yeah, and the players voted harden mvp over curry in 2014-2015. shows what they know

Acting like it wasn't close or debatable that year based on last season makes absolutely no sense. It definitely was.


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[jwise44]

yeah, and the players voted harden mvp over curry in 2014-2015. shows what they know

Bro, no reason to come and troll? That year was pretty much a toss up (harden even played some d that year)

Just because you hate harden doesn't mean everyone does. I think it's refreshing because all we get on this site is constant bashing of him. He has his flaws, but he is a great offensive player



Side note, went to the game tonight and it was a ton of fun. That 3 quarters alley from Lowry was awesome. I miss him, but bev got some love from the crowd when they introduced him on the jumbo tron

[dice]

yeah, and the players voted harden mvp over curry in 2014-2015. shows what they know

Bro, no reason to come and troll? That year was pretty much a toss up (harden even played some d that year)

Just because you hate harden doesn't mean everyone does. I think it's refreshing because all we get on this site is constant bashing of him. He has his flaws, but he is a great offensive player

1) i'm not trolling. i would not be on the houston board except that the wiretap sent me here
2) it wasn't close to a tossup
3) i don't hate harden
4) i agree that he is excellent to great offensively

i'm not bashing harden. i'm bashing durant's notion that the players are experts on the quality of other players. their views are unduly influenced by stats/highlight reels/personalities just like the general public

[Mr. E]

1) i'm not trolling. i would not be on the houston board except that the wiretap sent me here
2) it wasn't close to a tossup
3) i don't hate harden
4) i agree that he is excellent to great offensively

i'm not bashing harden. i'm bashing durant's notion that the players are experts on the quality of other players. their views are unduly influenced by stats/highlight reels/personalities just like the general public

It sent you here instead of the wiretap thread that's attached to that article? That's pretty strange. I'll have the admin guys look into that.

And yes, your original post came across as a trollish thing to do on the Rockets board. No worries, though - if it was a misunderstanding then it's no big deal. I'll see if I can find out what went wrong.

[dice]

1) i'm not trolling. i would not be on the houston board except that the wiretap sent me here
2) it wasn't close to a tossup
3) i don't hate harden
4) i agree that he is excellent to great offensively

i'm not bashing harden. i'm bashing durant's notion that the players are experts on the quality of other players. their views are unduly influenced by stats/highlight reels/personalities just like the general public

It sent you here instead of the wiretap thread that's attached to that article? That's pretty strange. I'll have the admin guys look into that.

And yes, your original post came across as a trollish thing to do on the Rockets board. No worries, though - if it was a misunderstanding then it's no big deal. I'll see if I can find out what went wrong.

there was no thread attached on the wiretap, so i clicked on the 'discuss' bubble right below the article and it sent me to this thread

[Mr. E]

there was no thread attached on the wiretap, so i clicked on the 'discuss' bubble right below the article and it sent me to this thread

Yeah, that's what I was talking about. I was just checking it out and I noticed that clicking on that button would sometimes send me to the wiretap article discussion thread, and other times it would re-direct me to this forum. Now I really want to know what's going on. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!

[Johnstarks]

Harden is amazingly underrated. He gets guys a ton of good looks, gets great penetration, Scores a lot with great efficiency, sets up tons of corner 3s....

People act like he's a terrible defender because of a few youtube clips. Realistically he's an average defender. But he's so great on offense that he still qualifies as a legitimate mvp candidate

[cw3k]

Probably with Harden is he didn't move the ball. Maybe it is McHale's fault. Hopefully MDA will make a different. If Harden move the ball, Rockets will be fun to watch again.

[Johnstarks]

He had a career high in assists. His shooting efficiency is off the charts. I think the dumpster fire roster around him might have been the bigger issue.

[Statlanta]

If anything I think this shows how much KD listens to the media but also how much non-Houston fans hate Harden and his style of play.

[Mr. E]

If anything I think this shows how much KD listens to the media but also how much non-Houston fans hate Harden and his style of play.

Fans who whine about Harden aren't really a big concern for me.

[ken6199]

If anything I think this shows how much KD listens to the media but also how much non-Houston fans hate Harden and his style of play.

Fans who whine about Harden aren't really a big concern for me.

This is superstar's league. A guy who averages 29/7/7, locked in for long term as the player to build around in his prime, I take him without a blink of eye even if what I get is a traffic cone in defense and a non talking water machine in the locker room. Having something to work with, is better than having nothing to work with (i.e. the DeRozans).

Some of the hate comes from the self-entitled justice of feeling the way Harden scores his points is cheating. They feel even more cheating because they feel their own stars have to earn those points 'in the hard way', yet Harden gets his points gift wrapped to him by the referees on a nightly basis. Self entitled justice, is a dangerous thing.

[ken6199]

To add to above - that's just points. People also think Harden ball hogs his way to his assists by hijacking the team offense, and padding his rebounds by roaming around the rim instead of closing out to the perimeter or getting up to challenge shots. I have seen plenty of this rubbish on GB and tired of arguing.

In all fairness, you can't say they are totally wrong because Harden does have those 'moments' - yet some of the perception out there is based on those moments, they label Harden as a guy who does that all the time, goes into the game entirely with this mindset, and finishes the game without giving a single crap of the team. Video compilations are made to tarnish him, Shaq'tin a Fool trashes him with the award, and there is the all-NBA triple snub. That's really rubbish and very challenging to argue with, so there you go, the unfortunate current situation.

Only Harden can help himself by doing even better.