In a newly released episode of the “Pull Up” podcast hosted by CJ McCollum, the Portland Trail Blazers guard launched a passionate defense of Houston Rockets star James Harden against his legion of critics.
Among McCollum’s statements on Harden:
A lot of people neglect the fact that James is an amazing basketball player. … He has a unique skill set, an amazing ability to not only score for himself, but make players better around him. I think people are just mad with how he’s mastered the game.
You know you’re doing something right when people find out ways to hate on you. You’re talking about a guy who [recently] scored 50 points essentially in consecutive games, and it wasn’t even a story. That’s how good he is.
“A lot of people neglect the fact that James is an amazing basketball player.”
McCollum is far from alone in that assessment. Within the past few weeks, other current or former NBA players to publicly voice their support for Harden have included future Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade, Toronto’s Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam, Orlando’s Jonathan Isaac, and Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis — just to name a few.
Regarding Harden’s numerous critics over style of play, McCollum said:
I know there’s a lot of people who are against the way he plays. They say ‘It’s bad for the game, he’s cheating the game, he’s manipulating the referees.’ The whole point in sports is to figure out ways to master the game. … Be as successful as possible. Not only individually, but collectively as a team. For him to generate fouls is good for not only himself, but it’s good for his team, because it makes them effectively impossible to guard once they go off the dribble.
I think a lot of people are just jealous, honestly.
I think the Luka Doncic comparisons… the way Luka draws fouls at times, I think it’s similar. It’s not consistent, because Luka hasn’t been in the league as long. But Luka is great at getting fouled on three-pointers. Luka is great at using his body. He’s great at drawing contact. But it’s funny how they have similar games in the sense of playing iso, playing 1 on 1. It’s flashy, it’s fun, they still make their teammates better. But it’s the perception of how they’re viewed in the public eye that’s very interesting to me.