James Harden has the opportunity to exorcise his demons in these NBA playoffs, but several ESPN analysts don’t seem to believe that will happen.
In their coverage of the play-in tournament Wednesday night, Jalen Rose and Mike Greenberg formed a vicious tag-team on the Sixers guard.
“His stats gotta look more like his MVP days in Houston, when they were supersized. Now they kind of look like concert tour dates,” Rose said.
“4-15, 4-10, 4-13, 3-12. He on tour!”
At that point, Greeny quipped, “He’s traveling with Lil Baby on his concert tour.”
Harden is famously friends with the rapper. The pair partied with Travis Scott, another rapper, last month after the Sixers got blown out at home by the Nets — whom Harden forced a trade from earlier this season — in a game where Harden shot 3-17 from the field.
On “First Take” on Thursday, Tim Legler eviscerated Harden for saying he doesn’t feel any pressure and has nothing to prove ahead of these playoffs.
Legler imagined sports talk radio listeners screeching off the road when they heard those remarks.
“He’s gotta be alone with his own thoughts, and there’s no question in my mind that he’s feeling [the pressure],” Legler said. “And, by the way, he’s going to feel it in a level of accountability and scrutiny like he has never experienced if he comes up small in this series [against the Celtics].”
Legler disputed the notion that Harden, who was traded from the Nets to the 76ers at the deadline, will be fine because he will make a lot of money in his next contract regardless of how he performs in the postseason, saying that’s not how the great ones think.
“Stand up there and say, ‘I know there’s pressure on me and I’m going to deliver,'” Legler said.