It’s fair to ask the question, what does James Harden want? is this a ring? Is it a lifestyle? Is it his own team? The 33-year-old former one-man wrecking crew is no longer an indestructible pinball, bouncing off everything, and accumulating high score after high score. No team will hand him the keys to the franchise as he is now fully Robin, but on Thursday He opted out of his contract to request a trade to the Philadelphia 76ers. For reasons that are unclear.
I say this because he’s got a handle on the situations – that guy, the guy with the Hall of Fame backcourt partner, the guy with the Hall of Fame wing player, the guy with the superteam, the guy with the Hall of Fame center – and nothing works. Did. According to NBA Shippers, the possible destinations are the general line of contenders closest to you. Think teams like the Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks, Miami Heat, Boston Celtics and I guess the New York Knicks.
Harden’s behavior displays a pattern of chasing circumstances rather than one’s self-acceptance. It’s saying, “This new car, house, marriage, job, team, title, or Circumstances will make me happy.” And in some cases, it’s true. Half of the NBA’s superstars look to the Larry O’Brien Trophy to give them closure and inner peace.
Remember how satisfied Dirk Nowitzki was after achieving basketball nirvana? (If Harden ever wins a title, he’ll take up residence at the Peppermint Hippo for a month.) It’s the feeling all professional athletes yearn for, but few can actually experience.,
However, in order to reach that level, Nowitzki first held himself accountable. During the Dallas Mavericks’ meeting with the Miami Heat in the 2006 NBA Finals, he attempted 17.5 field goals per game, but in their victorious rematch five years later, Durk exceeded that. about four attempts. Leaving nothing to chance, he had no displeasure with how the series played out, and even if he had lost, no one was going to blame him for it.
Although I don’t think it’s necessary for Harden to shoot more, sometimes it may be that he accepts the responsibilities that come with being one of a championship contender’s two to three best players.
The solution is in Harden’s mind
It would seem simple and easy considering Harden’s playoff history, but it’s actually something he’s never done: accept failure. I’m not saying consider yourself a failure, but rather be content with what he left behind on the court, for lack of a better cliché. There are a lot of aspects about beards – including the beard itself – that bother guys, but I think the one that bothers me the most is their hesitation to shoot their shot.
Their record of not performing do or die after the season is dismal. I want him to go down in a flurry of misses and turnovers rather than hope someone else does it for him, and that’s at the heart of this latest trade request. Harden is trying to find a situation that doesn’t exist because he is unwilling to change.
The clearest sign of a truly great player is how they affect results even when they are not on the heater. It’s easy to win when the shots are falling, but it’s rare to find a good fight when teams are desperate. It’s almost as if the league swaps out the hoops before Game 6 and 7 and replaces them with outdoor rims.
There is no friendly bounce, and everything is doubly hard. People are tired or scared, and some of them seem to calm down during timeouts because of that fatigue, fear, or both. At times, Harden emits one of those waves, but I’m not enough of a backseat psychologist to tell you why he does it. If I could, I’d probably have a better answer to my original question of what Harden wants.
This latest pursuit won’t yield different results in Miami, LA, Boston, New York, or wherever Beard lands unless he acknowledges that his play directly affects the team’s success. He’s never going to be an organization’s 1A option again, but he’s still at that point in his career where his talent could win a moment, a game, a series, and potentially a title.
James Harden gets paid too much, shoots too many stepbacks, and handles the ball for so long that it looks like he’s going to find a franchise that can win titles, regardless of the outcome of the game. During, by role player standards he may have an off-night. ,