James Harden (33‧196cm), affectionately nicknamed the ‘hairy guru’ by domestic fans, is one of the NBA’s representative technicians. He is not an extremely fast or explosive athletic player, but his unique style of play that controls his tempo and steals the opponent’s rhythm is the flavor of his era. As if to prove this, he boasts a splendid award-winning career, including regular season MVP 1 time, top scorer 3 times, assist king 1 time, and first team 6 times.
Harden’s play is unique and smooth. He seemed to dribble slowly, but in an instant, he took away the opponent’s center and succeeded in breaking through. As a dual guard capable of both 1st and 2nd, if he wanted to focus on his attack, he cracked the defense with a flashy and sharp pass. throw me away
He is also excellent at making multiple free throws by inducing fouls and step-back 3-pointers pretending to break through. Since he had such a high degree of diversity and perfection in his attacks, he even received rave reviews saying, ‘As much as his attack skills, he is on the level of Jordan’ when he was in the middle of the water rising skillfully. Compared to Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry, he boasted a reputation that is not far off.
Harden is still doing well, albeit slightly down from his prime. He is averaging 21.8 points, 11 assists, 6.5 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game in 25 games so far. Since it is Harden, it is said that ‘it is not as good as before’, but if he is like a decent player, he is a representative level player in the team. His scoring has dropped compared to his prime, but he’s better in some respects in terms of stat variety.
Nevertheless, it seems that recently, the case of mentioning Harden as the best player in the league has decreased a lot. Curry dominated last season, and Durant also led Brooklyn’s rise by showing a rejuvenated performance until the injury. Durant is currently leading the way in the All-Star voting and is regaining his reputation as the representative striker of the Earth Defense Force.
It is evaluated that whether or not he won the championship had the greatest impact on the background of Harden’s falling behind in status compared to his contemporaneous competitors. As can be seen in the case of undisputed kings such as John Stockton, Charles Barkley, and Reggie Miller, the difference between winning and not winning becomes a significant gap over time. In a way, it may not have meant much, but that’s why Karl Malone and Gary Payton gave up on being complete franchise stars and joined the pawnshop lineup.
Whatever it is, I am no longer young. vaguely ‘someday… ‘ The rest of my career as a player is not long enough to think. Harden was also well aware of this, so he did not hide his desire to win from the beginning. During his time in Houston, he formed an all-time guard team with Chris Paul to challenge for the championship and drove the Golden State Warriors, which was called the strongest team at the time, to the edge of the cliff.
Later, in Brooklyn, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving made the Big 3, but this time, dissonance was repeated outside the game, and he eventually left for Philadelphia. Considering that he is slowly losing his skills, this may be his last chance to win. It is not known whether the luck of tasting the championship with good members will come later in time, but there is a big difference between winning the championship as the main player and not. Not an ordinary star player, even more so at an all-time high level like Harden.
In a way, the best scenario for Harden is to follow the steps of Clyde Drexler (60, 201cm), a top-notch shooting guard who dominated the 1990s. Although he was eclipsed by his contemporaries Michael Jordan, Drexler also deserves to be called one of the best No. 2s of his time. As you can see from the nickname ‘Glider’, he was a person who showed an elegant air show different from ‘Air’ Jordan, ‘Doctor J’ Julius Irving, and ‘Air Canada’ Vince Carter.
Near the free throw line, he jumped up softly like a glider and put in a dunk, and he often showed a scene where he caught the ball launched by a colleague with one hand in the air and connected it to an alley-oop dunk. At the moment when he wanted to show even the slightest gap, he cast an in-your-face dunk without hesitation against big men. He was a dunk shot master who stood out among countless dunk technicians of his time.
He was also excellent at rebounding with high elasticity, and in addition to that, he was also good at outside shots and assists. During the Portland Blazers days, he led the team as an ace and steadily stepped on the playoff stage, and reached the NBA final stage twice, but unfortunately, he was blocked by Detroit and Chicago, respectively, and ended up finishing runner-up.
Maybe he felt a crisis that he could finish his career as a military officer in a situation where his skills were on a downward trend. Drexler requested a trade from the club and moved to the Houston Rockets. In Houston, Hakeem Olajuwon, one of the best centers in the league, was holding on, and Drexler helped him as number 2 to form a one-two punch and taste the final championship of his dreams.
Coincidentally, currently in Philadelphia, Joel Embiid (28‧213cm), who is called the ‘second Olajuwon’, is showing off his majesty as a leading star. Harden also acknowledges him and is forming a one-two punch with Embiid as the second-in-command in the team. Unlike the heyday when he scored a lot by his personal skills, he is sparing no effort to match in many areas, such as focusing on assists. 메이저사이트
Currently, Philadelphia is running 5th in the Eastern Conference with 25 wins and 16 losses (0.610 win rate). Although there is a considerable gap with Boston in first place, there is only a two-game difference between Brooklyn in second place, so it can be overturned as long as it has a proper winning streak. Attention is focusing on whether Harden, who is still unrelated, will be able to quench his thirst for championship with the best big man named Embiid.