Harden Rant Part VIII

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Sorry for the constant Harden rants, but this guy bugs the hell out of me.

Here is the latest example. Watch Harden right before the foul from Faried. He pulls that bullshit move where he sticks his arms straight out and tries to find a defenders arm or body to hit. Let's cut to the tape....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=krJBzuubfeQ

He whiffs in his first attempt and then Faried fouls him anyway. Harden proceeds to get all huffy about the foul. So wait, you stick your arms out in an unnatural attempt to draw contact, and then when you do draw contact, you get all upset about it!? Argh, this guy bugs me! Someone needs to absolutely hammer his arms so hard when he pulls this stunt that he never wants to do it again. Too bad Faried didn't hit him harder.....

[TRKO [enjin:12664595]]

I was going to bring that up to you in another thread. That wasn't even a hard foul. This is a hard foul:
http://youtu.be/aom4cQXk0KY

Hate how soft some guys have become.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

And they have Josh Smith too. They're right behind the clippers in "teams to hate."

[Coolbreeze44]

Don't like it either. For such a talented player I wish he would just play basketball. He's definitely perfected the art of drawing the foul.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Q, I may have missed HR Part IV...is it available on podcast?

I take a different stance than you guys on "foul hunters". If a guy is clever enough to create the appearance of a foul, I say more power to him. Our own Kevin Martin has made a career out of it (to be fair, I've seen some of you criticize Martin too for doing that), but I like it when he does it. And I liked it when Kevin Love would get his man up in the air, and then create the contact in order to get three free throws. I agree that referees can be a little more diligent about not giving the guy the call if he created the contact, but I think that's on the refs...not on the player.

All that said, I do think Harden seems like kind of a dick.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I was going to bring that up to you in another thread. That wasn't even a hard foul. This is a hard foul:
http://youtu.be/aom4cQXk0KY

Hate how soft some guys have become.

Also notice how Laimbeer got right back up like a man. He knew that foul was payback for all the dirty plays he had previously made.

I certainly don't condone this type of play in general, and I certainly don't want to go back to the 90s version of defense where everyone was hand-checking, clutching, and grabbing their way to 80-75 final scores. However, it harkens back to another time when players could enforce things themselves without the referees getting as involved. Pippen only got a technical for that foul. That would have easily been a Flagrant II in today's NBA and he would have been thrown out of the game and perhaps suspended for an additional game.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Q, I may have missed HR Part IV...is it available on podcast?

I take a different stance than you guys on "foul hunters". If a guy is clever enough to create the appearance of a foul, I say more power to him. Our own Kevin Martin has made a career out of it (to be fair, I've seen some of you criticize Martin too for doing that), but I like it when he does it. And I liked it when Kevin Love would get his man up in the air, and then create the contact in order to get three free throws. I agree that referees can be a little more diligent about not giving the guy the call if he created the contact, but I think that's on the refs...not on the player.

All that said, I do think Harden seems like kind of a dick.

Yeah, it's perfectly understandable that guys are trying to look for any edge they can get. That doesn't mean I have to like it! It also bugs the hell out of me that he gets so upset at Faried for the foul. Well, you are hunting for fouls and you got fouled. Stop your whining! If Laimbeer, Oakley, or Mahorn were still playing, he'd have two broken arms by now.

Of all the foul-baiters out there, Harden's are the closest to legit fouls. How can the referee not call it when he's legitimately getting hit in the arm? But this is where I think going back to player-enforced rules would fix this really quick.

[TheGrey08]

The NBA needs to wise up and stop calling that BS.

[A Friendly Flatulence [enjin:8907904]]

The NBA needs to wise up and stop calling that BS.

Bingo, players will stop doing it if it stops being called. I realize its a strategy to give your team and advantage, but so is flopping & the NBA cracked down on flopping. Although I think this would be harder to deter, still start issuing fines..money talks.