James Harden Is The Perfect Villain
By Kevin Nye
We explain why James Harden is the perfect villain for today’s NBA
James Harden is a lot of things. He’s one of the NBA MVP favorites, he’s a superstar, he’s the No. 1 pitchman for Adidas (NBA), he’s a legendary “what if” from OKC, and a whole lot more.
While it’s fun to hate on Harden as a non-Rockets fan, everything that Houston loves about him makes James Harden the modern NBA’s perfect villain.
Yes, there’s still Draymond Green, Kevin Durant, and the entire Warriors franchise – those guys are villains too, but of course those guys are villains. This is different.
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So what are the reasons that James Harden is a villain? I’m glad you asked.
1. The Euro-step
It may be hard to remember now, but the Euro-step wasn’t really a thing in the NBA until Manu Ginobili came over from the Italian league and started making guys look ridiculous. Everyone does it now, but at the time it was bizarre. You would watch this elbowy little white guy take two huge dancing steps sideways across the lane and scream “WHAT THE **** WAS THAT?!” at your TV with a renewed fury toward the NBA.
Dwyane Wade took over as the principal Euro-stepping villain in the mid-2000s, as he and Manu would tuck the ball like a running back, juke like a running back, then toss up a layup as agitated fans-of-other-teams would shoot fire out of their eyeballs.
These days, of course, the Euro-step is an unavoidable (and useful) part of anyone’s offensive game. Kyrie does it, Russ does it, Wall does it, Durant does it, and James Harden does it.
But the way Harden does it harkens back to those “NO! THAT’S NOT FAIR” days of Manu’s early career.
Harden is such a prolific Euro-stepper that nike.com put out a tutorial video of him explaining how he does a Euro-step, although his explanation is basically “I’m good at basketball.”
Being able to take advantage of nondescript traveling rules, however, isn’t the only thing that makes Harden a villain.
2. The free throws
Have you ever watched a guy single-handedly beat your favorite team by going making 15+ free throws? That’s Harden.
This season, Harden is shooting under 35 percent from deep (undermining the “Russ can’t be MVP because he shoots so poorly” debate at least a little bit). When his shot is off, he makes up for it in the most frustrating way possible: Drawing iffy fouls.
This is true villainy.
Westbrook gets foul calls because he runs through the lane like a semi truck with no brakes and guys can’t help fouling. Harden coaxes officials into whistles with flailing arms, stutter-steps, and fall-downs. We all know it, we all roll our eyes at it.
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Imagine being a Celtics fan and watching your team play Houston on December 5th. Harden turns the ball over 10 times, gets called for a flagrant foul in the final seconds (giving Boston a chance to tie with less than 10 seconds left), and you still lose by one because he went 18-18 on free throws.
Can you imagine hating a player more than James Harden after that game? How about if I told you that the Celtics shot 12 free throws as a team? Villain.
3. The eye test
Look at this guy.
He’s in great shape, of course, but he’s not the biggest, fastest, or strongest guy out there. He doesn’t fly down the court like John Wall, stretch from halfcourt to the rim like Giannis, or become the human incarnation of a tank like LeBron or Russ. He doesn’t blow your mind with handles like Kyrie or Steph, he doesn’t jitterbug through the giants like Isaiah, and he doesn’t rain fire like Klay.
Harden’s game is predicated on a deceptively quick first step, tremendous reading ability (basketball-wise, I don’t know if he’d leaf through Dostoevsky for pleasure), and body control.
Villainous.
4. He has fatal flaws
Villains are just heroes with fatal flaws. For James Harden, it’s turnovers.
James Harden may beat the previous record for most turnovers in a season by 100. He holds that previous record.
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He also has the stigma of being a bad (and extremely lazy) defensive player. What’s easier to dislike than a guy who only tries on one end of the floor? A guy who only tries on one end of the floor but is so efficient on that end of the floor that he still wins the MVP over a guy who averages a triple-double.
Villainous.