Steve Nash believes James Harden is unfairly treated by the new rules

[JonFromVA]

If Harden was a talented cheater, he would have come up with a new way to cheat by now.

I mean a magician can easily pull off a slight of hand trick in front of 100's of people watching his every move closely ... it should be child's play to fool the refs by comparison.

Unless they just assume everything Harden does is cheating ... which alas is the endpoint for any habitual cheater or liar.

[HiRez]

Was it not unfair that Harden was taking advantage of the old rules? Nash needs to wake up.

Yes, I think it's fair to view this as Nash realizing Harden was poorly officiated for many years and now that he's suffering the lack of calls for many that shouldn't have been fouls all along, the inconsistency seems bad. And it is, no one likes inconsistency or whiplash changes in refereeing. But where Nash is wrong is that the "now" is the "unfair" part, when in reality it was the "then" part that was unfair and wrongly called for all those years.

I just hope the refs can clean it up and stick with the plan. I'm a huge Curry fan and he's also benefitted from some of these calls with the leg kicks and launching himself into defenders when shooting and he should also stop getting those calls. Harden and Curry and all the rest of these guys are talented enough they shouldn't need to get these ridiculous foul calls to be successful. They all will need to adjust and it'll be a better game for it in the end.

[DarkXaero]

To be completely honest, out of the foul baiting guards, Trae and Curry are way more egregious than Harden in jumping into player and/or touch fouls baiting.

Harden definitely is being targeted unfairly. If you can't see that you are not an objective fan and are just a straight up hater. Curry, Morant, Trae are still living at the line this season pulling the same crap they pull every year.

And on he topic of non jump shooting fouls, Harden is literally getting hit and hacked without calls. This is the same type of fouls that FT leaders like Giannis, Davis, Butler gets.

You cannot have two sets of standards, one for Harden, another for the rest of the league.

Thank you. And that is what the point is here. Refs have decided not to call anything for Harden, it's not the new rule changes (he's not jumping into defenders off pump fakes or hooking arms), its as if they're looking to make him an example.

I bet the wide majority of fans/posters here or elsewhere who are mocking Harden and Nash, haven't even watched what has happened in the 3 games so far.

[Hornet Mania]

If Harden thinks the rule change went too far that means they are working as intended. Great news.

[G35]

Fans that defended Harden's style of play always relied on the logic that he was just taking advantage of how the rules were written. That Harden was so smart and skilled that its not his fault that he gets all those calls.

So now applying that same energy, Harden should be so smart and skilled to adjust and get fouls called within the rules as they are written......

[CS707]

I can kinda see both sides tbh. For quite a few years now players have modeled their games and teams have built their rosters based on a certain way the game has been called. Now overnight that's no longer viable. It takes a pretty self aware individual to not find that frustrating. And, to be clear, I'm not advocating changing course nor am I blind to the fact that the same thing happened when rules changed in favor of perimeter players but the reactions are to be expected.

[Mickey8]

Jokic really gets fouled often , yet he gets to line rarely , he has the case to complain and his coach, Harden not too much.

[moderndarwin]

Statements 3 games into a season. Great.

Harden hasn’t been attacking the rim. And now he’s gotta make his jumpers. I’m not sure what the big deal is. Running wildly into defenders has never been basketball and it’s great that he is not rewarded for that. Literally, all he has to do it make shots and not seek out contact. Everyone else has adjusted just fine. He’s playing poorly and he’s using this as an excuse for being out of shape and not fully engaged. He also gets less usage since Durant is around. I legit love to see this.

[JRoy]

To be completely honest, out of the foul baiting guards, Trae and Curry are way more egregious than Harden in jumping into player and/or touch fouls baiting.

Harden definitely is being targeted unfairly. If you can't see that you are not an objective fan and are just a straight up hater. Curry, Morant, Trae are still living at the line this season pulling the same crap they pull every year.

And on he topic of non jump shooting fouls, Harden is literally getting hit and hacked without calls. This is the same type of fouls that FT leaders like Giannis, Davis, Butler gets.

You cannot have two sets of standards, one for Harden, another for the rest of the league.

Thank you. And that is what the point is here. Refs have decided not to call anything for Harden, it's not the new rule changes (he's not jumping into defenders off pump fakes or hooking arms), its as if they're looking to make him an example.

I bet the wide majority of fans/posters here or elsewhere who are mocking Harden and Nash, haven't even watched what has happened in the 3 games so far.

Boo hoo.

This has been a long time coming.

[Duke4life831]

Haha I just love the people that say things like, "Im not one to complain" right as they're about to complain or just got done complaining. Its like the people that say, "Im someone who takes responsibility" just before they're about to or just got done blaming someone else haha.

[DarkXaero]

To be completely honest, out of the foul baiting guards, Trae and Curry are way more egregious than Harden in jumping into player and/or touch fouls baiting.

Harden definitely is being targeted unfairly. If you can't see that you are not an objective fan and are just a straight up hater. Curry, Morant, Trae are still living at the line this season pulling the same crap they pull every year.

And on he topic of non jump shooting fouls, Harden is literally getting hit and hacked without calls. This is the same type of fouls that FT leaders like Giannis, Davis, Butler gets.

You cannot have two sets of standards, one for Harden, another for the rest of the league.

Thank you. And that is what the point is here. Refs have decided not to call anything for Harden, it's not the new rule changes (he's not jumping into defenders off pump fakes or hooking arms), its as if they're looking to make him an example.

I bet the wide majority of fans/posters here or elsewhere who are mocking Harden and Nash, haven't even watched what has happened in the 3 games so far.

Boo hoo.

This has been a long time coming.

Thanks for proving my point.

[DarkXaero]

Haha I just love the people that say things like, "Im not one to complain" right as they're about to complain or just got done complaining. Its like the people that say, "Im someone who takes responsibility" just before they're about to or just got done blaming someone else haha.

In fairness, the reporters are asking him about it (in this case, the reporter brings up what Nash said). It's not like he's bringing it up on his own.

[DarkXaero]

Statements 3 games into a season. Great.

Harden hasn’t been attacking the rim. And now he’s gotta make his jumpers. I’m not sure what the big deal is. Running wildly into defenders has never been basketball and it’s great that he is not rewarded for that. Literally, all he has to do it make shots and not seek out contact. Everyone else has adjusted just fine. He’s playing poorly and he’s using this as an excuse for being out of shape and not fully engaged. He also gets less usage since Durant is around. I legit love to see this.

He is playing poorly and he has acknowledged that he's working himself back into good playing rhythm. But it's not like he hasn't been attacking the rim, it doesn't look like how it did in Houston right now, but he is driving. Harden will be fine once he's in good shape/rhythm.

[Cubbies2120]

Probably because he's the one that mostly benefited from it in the past. I wouldn't be shocked if over 50% of the video clips for training the refs on the rule came from him, so they're extra careful not to give in to his BS anymore.

[mademan]

To be completely honest, out of the foul baiting guards, Trae and Curry are way more egregious than Harden in jumping into player and/or touch fouls baiting.

Harden definitely is being targeted unfairly. If you can't see that you are not an objective fan and are just a straight up hater. Curry, Morant, Trae are still living at the line this season pulling the same crap they pull every year.

And on he topic of non jump shooting fouls, Harden is literally getting hit and hacked without calls. This is the same type of fouls that FT leaders like Giannis, Davis, Butler gets.

You cannot have two sets of standards, one for Harden, another for the rest of the league.

Thank you. And that is what the point is here. Refs have decided not to call anything for Harden, it's not the new rule changes (he's not jumping into defenders off pump fakes or hooking arms), its as if they're looking to make him an example.

I bet the wide majority of fans/posters here or elsewhere who are mocking Harden and Nash, haven't even watched what has happened in the 3 games so far.

Ive watched the games. There may have been a wrong no-call here and there, a charge i thought was a blocking foul last night, but all in all, Harden is being reffed correctly. Theyve been letting contact go league wide and are not letting players get away with creating fouls on drives going nowhere.

I dont know what that dudes talking about. Morants never foul baited and Trae has seen his FT's go down 50%. I havent watched and GSW games so cant comment on Curry

[Doctor MJ]

Read on Twitter

Already complaining LMAO

I have to say I think Nash would be wise to keep his mouth shut here.

Normally when you complain about unfairness, you're hoping to make refs feel like they are victimizing some player.

In this case, might as well tell the NBA that their new plan is working really well.

I'm skeptical that Harden won't figure out how to exploit whatever changes the refs make to their approach though.

[HiRez]

If this forces Harden (among others) to change his game to rely on actual basketball moves and skills, I'm excited to see what he does. These guys are all skilled enough to succeed without those calls, they just haven't had to for a long time.

[theforumblue]

When a player thrives off manufacturing fouls, then it makes sense that refs are hesitant to call the fouls legit or not until player has changed his playing style little bit. They're both feeling each other out. Season isn't even a week old.

Nash just doing what he has to. I don't love the guy or anything but I bet he doesn't love how Harden gets his fts either.

[DubTheVanDamage]

To be completely honest, out of the foul baiting guards, Trae and Curry are way more egregious than Harden in jumping into player and/or touch fouls baiting.

Harden definitely is being targeted unfairly. If you can't see that you are not an objective fan and are just a straight up hater. Curry, Morant, Trae are still living at the line this season pulling the same crap they pull every year.

And on he topic of non jump shooting fouls, Harden is literally getting hit and hacked without calls. This is the same type of fouls that FT leaders like Giannis, Davis, Butler gets.

You cannot have two sets of standards, one for Harden, another for the rest of the league.

I loved how you just threw out an untrue claim -- that Trae and Curry being more egregious in baiting fouls -- then went on a rant as if your falsehood was a fact. It's especially lovely it was in the same post where you called out other people for not being objective if they didn't agree with you.

You were too lazy to do a simple Google search. If you had, you would have found this:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/26662160/the-sour-science-driving-james-harden-vexing-genius

Over the past three seasons, the Charlotte Hornets rank second in the NBA with 185 3-point shooting fouls drawn. Harden has drawn 288 by himself.

The article is from 2019 -- but, at that time, Harden was drawing fouls on 3 point attempts 350% more often than Curry. If you object to two sets of rules existing for the league -- one for Harden and one for the rest of the league -- you should be thrilled that the league has finally corrected their overly generous allocation of FTs to Harden.

[Kobeskillz]

He stole a ton of points before by taking advantage of the rule. The damage is done.

Kobe avg 35 mostly by driving hard and jumpers in the defenders face. This dude just got foul call after foul call after foul call for acting. The 5 steps he would take before shooting didn't hurt either.