Kobe Was Right About James Harden But The NBA Ignored It

James Harden is an NBA MVP that can’t win a championship, and Kobe knew it first #nba ✅ Check out PrizePicks: https://bit.ly/PrizePicksMJ2K Promo Code: MJ2K

With James Harden, there’s a dichotomy. A game winner or a flopper. He dropped 45 points in Game 1, then made 5 shots in the next two games combined, then hit the game winner and 42 points in Game 4. And in Game 7, he had 9 points, 6 turnovers, and a lot of time on the ground. It was so bad that Stephen A. Smith said that Harden should shave his beard. And trust me, no one wants that.

The shift was dramatic. And it seems like every game, the perception of Harden changes. And now Harden’s “serious” about returning to the Rockets? But one thing has remained nearly constant. Harden’s inconsistency. What do I mean by inconsistency? The way Harden plays is set up for failure that we’ve seen over and over again. And unless he makes a conscious choice to change, Harden is going to have one of those great careers that was self-sabotaged by something that a lot of people are struggling with right now, but to understand, we’re going to need to look at Harden’s history in the playoffs of exactly what Kobe said. He was the main guy and over the years, even as the offense would be designed around him and became one of the best players in the world, there was a dark secret holding him back.

So the question at this point is obvious. Why isn’t Harden consistent in the playoffs when he’s a star in the regular season? What immediately comes to mind is free throws. As Harden started to get more and more of the ball, he began to draw more and more fouls in some ridiculous ways. Don’t hate the player hate the game. Yet in the playoffs, softer fouls don’t get called and defenses key in. And there is a slight decrease in Harden’s free throws, from 10.6 attempts between 2015-19 to only 8.6 in the playoffs. You could say that a lack of certail calls prevents Harden from becoming consistent, prevents him from getting into rhythm. After all, Harden has made more free throws than field goals. But that doesn’t explain what happened in 2017.

The rockets faced the Spurs in round 2. The series was tied 2-2 and the Rockets lost a tough game where Harden had a 33 point triple double. A game 7 looked inevitable after Kawhi and Tony parker sat for game 6 in Houston. And Harden scored 10 points on 2 for 11 shooting…Instead of forcing game 7 it was 61-42 Spurs at the half and ended up being a 39 point loss. But it wasn’t that Harden wasn’t getting calls. In fact, from tip-off Harden just looked out of it. He wasn’t aggressive, he was passing out of shots like what is this? Apparently he ran out of gas, that’s what his coach said which is weird. It was clear that Harden was the reason they lost.

You might look at Harden averaging 10+ assists and believe that he’s a great playmaker and he is creating a lot of shots for his teammates, but they are more catch and shoot opportunities. Rather, when you watch the games, you realize that the Harden offense means that his teammates don’t get their own rhythm either. It’s the movement component that Kobe talks about. But even Harden’s own teammates have fought him over it.

In 2019, Harden averaged an insane 36.1 points a game, and even with Durant going down with an injury, the healthy Rockets couldn’t put away the Warriors in Game 5 or Game 6 at home despite Harden averaging over 30 in those two games.

In 2020, Harden would demand a trade from the Rockets but the Rockets were in no hurry to trade him so Harden showed up to training camp out of shape. And I mean really out of shape, pillsbury doughboy lookin ass.

But as soon as he wanted out once he was done with Kyrie Irving, he demanded a trade and again got out of shape.

**A lack of accountability and immediate gratification.**

Even in the midst of Harden’s historic scoring seasons, Kobe said he wouldn’t be able to win with that style and that’s still correct. The great scoring guards knew when to get their teammates involved. They didn’t pass for the assist, they passed to get other offensive sets running. But don’t take my words for it, take the great Kobe Bryant:

Harden wants the basketball freedom to be himself. So the excuse actually is that he wasn’t playing his style when they lost? But when you’ve had one of the highest usages in NBA history, we’ve seen your style James for about 4 years and unfortunately, it doesn’t work to win a championship. You don’t stats, you just need to watch the games.

**We gotta hold ourselves accountable.** It can’t always be someone else’s fault. Sure 2018 didn’t fall your way, but 2019 did. Work on yourself to give yourself the best opportunity to succeed.