National Basketball Association

Why do we hate James Harden so much?

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Ti Windisch is a writer and host of the Timeout with Ti podcast. He enjoys longform articles and NBA bromances. You can find the bulk of his work at Behind the Buck Pass and pretty much everything he writes (plus tons of idiotic hot takes) on his Twitter @TiWindisch.

NBA fans can’t agree on anything. Nearly every major issue that arises in the league gets its beloved community split right down the middle. Is the greatest ever LeBron James or Michael Jordan? Was Kevin Durant smartly exercising his right to free agency by leaving for golder pastures or was he gutlessly leaving Russell Westbrook and Oklahoma City behind? Is analytics the future of the sport or simply a bunch of nerds crunching numbers that are meaningless next to intangibles and other aspects of basketball that don’t need equations to decipher?

However, there is one thing that most NBA fans seem to agree on: Almost nobody outside of Houston likes James Harden. NBA Reddit even has a running joke about how hated he is. Because of it, several NBA players — the most outspoken of which might be Durant — believe he’s severely underrated. And it’s hard to argue with them seeing as Harden was left off of all three All-NBA teams this past season despite averaging 29.0 points, 7.5 assists, 6.1 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game. He compared favorably to the four guards included on the second and third team in most statistics, too, which only adds salt to the wound.

The most-given reason for hating Harden is his offensive play style. His defense is certainly mocked as well, but people who really despise him seem more likely to do so because of his propensity for drawing fouls. After all, who else but Harden would get called out for flopping in the Drew League?

It’s hard to define what a true flop is, but based on watching a whole lot of Harden play, I’d say he’s hardly one of the most excessive floppers in the NBA. He draws boatloads of contact, but that’s more due to his mix of speed, handles and strength than theatrics. Harden will sell contact here or there, but newsflash: Every NBA player does that.

Harden earns his points. He’s a knockdown 3-point shooter, plus he’s deadly driving the ball. There’s no denying he’s a great offensive player. But there’s also no denying that he can be the most boring dominant offensive player to watch since Wilt Chamberlain stood under the rim for 48 minutes to score 100 points.

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Although calling Harden out for flopping isn’t necessarily fair, criticizing him for playing a repetitive brand of basketball is more on par. He has led the NBA in total free throws attempted in three of his last four seasons, and he’s the only player to average at least nine free throws per game every season since he joined the Rockets. In those four seasons, Harden has taken 3,118 free throws. Former teammate Durant is in second place with 2,224 attempted free throws. Basically, there isn’t anyone who gets to the free throw line like Harden does these days.

But what he’s doing is hardly unprecedented. Harden led the league in attempted free throws and had a career high 837 of them last season. That total ranks 42nd all-time. Wilt had over 1,000 free throws four times in the 1960s. Jordan has two seasons with more free throws than Harden has ever attempted. And if you think it’s only historical players who’ve gotten to the line more than Harden, Durant attempted 840 free throws in the 2009-10 season when Harden was coming off of the bench in Oklahoma City.

Most great scorers have ended up at the charity stripe often. It’s simply a side effect of being an unstoppable force on offense — the only way to slow down a player that’s red hot is to foul them. Harden certainly draws fouls on purpose, but it’s not as though he can’t score from the floor.

Harden is good enough to give defenses two options on nearly every possession: Either you foul him or you let him get to the rim. Neither of those options are good. He is fourth among all NBA players who drive at least eight times per game in points percentage on drives — he scores on a remarkable 76.6 percent of his drives, either through free throws or field goals. And while it’s true Harden draws more free throws on drives per game than anybody besides DeMar DeRozan, he still makes 49.6 percent of his field goals on drives, which is 12th among players to drive at least eight times per game.

He’s a legitimately great offensive player. No player has matched his output over the past four years — Harden is the only NBA player to total 8,400 points, 2,000 assists and 1,600 rebounds in that time. Instead of realizing Harden is potentially one of the most versatile shooting guards the NBA has ever seen, fans choose instead to tear him apart. Maybe part of the problem with the perception of Harden is his team’s struggles.

The Rockets were far worse than they should’ve been last season, but is that because of Harden or in spite of him? He added more wins than all but five NBA players last season. The Rockets only outscored teams by 1.2 points per 100 possessions with Harden on the court, but they were outscored by 5.3 points per 100 possessions without him. He didn’t make Houston a contender, but he did make his team better. In a year where nothing seemed to work for the Rockets, Harden caught the blame for being the one at the helm of the ship.

On a new Rockets team built to exemplify Harden’s distribution on offense, he could look even better next season. Houston’s new coach Mike D’Antoni thinks Harden can average double-digit assist numbers by running an offense reminiscent to the one Steve Nash shined in during his time with the Suns. That prediction might be more believable than Corey Brewer saying Harden will play defense next season on the “future Rockets,” but it’s telling that a long-time teammate publicly has his back despite the rumors of a fractured Houston locker room that have occasionally surfaced.

Speaking of defense, we can’t ignore those issues but Harden is hardly the first offensive star to have lapses on that end of the court. Nash certainly wasn’t a great defender, but he can be appreciated at least momentarily without his defense being brutally dragged through the mud. It’s not like Harden is the only NBA player currently struggling defensively, either. Damian Lillard endures nowhere near the amount of ribbing Harden does, and yet he averages less steals per 36 minutes and blocks per 36 minutes than Harden and has a lower defensive rating, defensive box plus/minus and defensive wins added.

Considering Harden also averaged more points per 36 minutes, assists per 36 minutes and rebounds per 36 minutes, plus had a better field goal percentage and played nearly 500 more minutes, it becomes harder to explain why he lost an All-NBA spot to Dame. Perhaps a lot of it falls on the NBA community deciding that Harden is an awful defender and a limited weapon on offense who is only around because he flops.

Either way, whatever the reason is for Harden being so despised, it needs to stop. He’s one of the best players in the NBA and also one of the smartest. Harden’s game is the product of analytics. A full 60 percent of Harden’s points come from 3-pointers and free throws, the two most efficient shots in basketball. Instead of hating Harden for what he isn’t, it’s time to love him for what he does bring to the table. One day, after his jersey is hung up for good, the NBA community is going to realize that Harden was completely under-appreciated in 2016.

Hopefully fans can get over their bizarre and nonsensical hatred of Harden soon, so we don’t look back and regret taking his game for granted over the course of his entire career.

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