There was a time here in Houston, when our entire basketball universe, as a city, centered around one man — James Harden. Regardless of how a particular season might end, the Houston Rockets’ organization goal in the subsequent offseason was to find the correct pieces to put around Harden so that the team could win an NBA title.
Well, as we all know, despite running various iterations of Rockets basketball out there with Dwight Howard, Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook, that never happened. Ultimately, Harden just threw up his hands, and gave up, on one fateful night in early January of 2021:
All those years of playoff failure, including some of the most cataclysmically poor performances in elimination games, all those years of defending Harden against the (in retrospect, correct) masses from outside Houston, who would talk about how utterly soft he was in big moments, all of that went right down the tubes.
The good news, though, is two fold. First, the Rockets are back to being a competitive basketball team again. Sure, they were just eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, but a 52-30 record, with a decidedly young core of players, is nothing to sneeze at. Second, Harden is still failing in big moments! Ask Clippers fans, the third fan base that Harden has let down since leaving Houston for Brooklyn (and eventually Philadelphia and Los Angeles).
Let’s savor some of the ignominious details of he latest Harden calamity:
Harden’s performance this past Sunday was so predictable
In the final game of the postseason for the Clippers, against a Nuggets team that was being led by an interim head coach, Harden was the worst version of himself. He was passive — 2 for 8 shooting, only EIGHT shots! — and lacking in impact (7 points). About the only nice thing I can say is that he had 13 assists, but the Clippers would likely rather he have six assists and take 20 shots! At least, be aggressive! Instead, the Clippers benched their starters early in the fourth quarter, down 30 points. The coup de gras, of course, was Harden’s cowardly ducking out on doing a postgame press conference, too.
Since the COVID season, Harden has been a catastrophe in Game 7’s
Game 7’s are the ultimate spectacle in sports, a “win or go home” endeavor whose pomp and circumstance has been preceded by six juicy lead up games. Some players and coaches have the stomach for it, and some don’t. Put Harden in the “don’t” category. Since 2020, Harden’s numbers in Game 7’s look like this:
13.5 points per game
27.5 field goal percentage
16.7 three point field goal percentage
41.6 minutes per game
This means he is playing virtually every minute of each of these games, and doing so in an extremely terrible fashion. Way to go, James!
Harden has left a horrific final impression each of the last five seasons
First impressions and final impressions, those are the most important images you create for people. It’s possible to make a favorable impression, even in a losing effort. Needless to say, James Harden has not done that. Not only has his team never ended the season on a winning note (i.e. winning an NBA title), but here are Harden’s numbers in his last five elimination games:
13.0 points per game
19 of 61 shooting field goals
7 of 34 shooting three point field goals
In final elimination games, James Harden has been the guy who leaves a stench in the bathroom that lasts for the entire summer.
James Harden did make history, but not the good kind
After Sunday’s disaster in Denver, James Harden has now lost a Game 7 with four different organizations — the Houston Rockets, the Brooklyn Nets, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Los Angeles Clippers. Harden is the only player to ever “accomplish” this feat (and all kidding aside, that’s not easy to do, lose FOUR Game 7’s in four different cities). Never say that Harden doesn’t like to spread the wealth!
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