James Harden was set on fire by US media on Friday after his lackluster performance saw his Philadelphia 76ers side eliminated in the NBA playoffs.
Harden, who joined the Sixers in February with the goal of winning them the championship, delivered an anonymous performance on Thursday night and Philadelphia lost Game 6 to Miami 99-90.
Harden, 32, only scored 11 points in 42 minutes with just 9 assists and “The Beard” (the bearded man) only attempted two shots in the second half, both of which missed.
“It was one of the most disastrous performances by a star player in recent NBA playoffs,” said ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith. “James Harden was so bad last night you almost thought he was doing it on purpose.”
Skip Bayless, the basketball expert of the competing chain Fox, also wondered about the motivation of the player. “It’s clear he didn’t want to go to the Finals because he’s not interested in winning. He’s more interested in being MVP (the best player), being among the 75 greatest players of all time in the NBA and earn a lot of money but he has now betrayed himself”.
Harden for his part hoped, after the defeat against Miami, to be able to stay with the Philadelphia team which he considers capable of winning the championship.
“Personally, it’s been a long year for me. But it’s been fantastic since I’ve been here. We’re trying to build something very quickly, to quickly build a team that can win the championship which we can do. But he still missing a few elements,” he said.
In 21 games with the Sixers, he averaged 21 points per game, his lowest score since his 2011-12 season with the Oklahoma City Thunder (16.8).
His own teammate Joel Embiid for his part asserted that Harden was only a shadow of the one who had been designated in 2018 MVP while playing with Houston.
“Since he came to us, we all thought we’d find the James Harden of Houston. But he’s not that one anymore, he’s more of a playmaker. I thought at times that he would have could have been more aggressive, like all of us,” Embiid said, adding “we all need to be better.”
