Two years ago, Houston Rockets star James Harden was routinely mocked, sometimes verbally but mostly by Vine clips, for his tendency to not give a damn about playing defense. Things improved last season as Harden's reputation for ignoring that side of the ball seemed to genuinely bother him, but it's now the 2016-2016 season, the Rockets are off to a horrific 6-10 start and Harden is once again giving the middle finger to defense.
Tonight's example comes from New York City, where the Rockets were taking on the Carmelo Anthony-less Knicks. On this particular play, Jason Terry has the ball stolen from him at midcourt by Lance Thomas. Harden is the only man between Thomas and the basket, but instead of attempting to stop the ball, Harden points to the ref and starts complaining about what he thought should have been a foul on Thomas. As he halfheartedly backpedals, he completely ignores Thomas as he drives right to the basket for an open layup.
Like the many other videos of Harden playing disinterested defense over the years, his most gratuitous examples, like this one, become a symbol for his entire year, which isn't entirely fair. But man, is this is an embarrassing display for a team that just had their head coach fired because they were underperforming.
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[Via Seth Rosenthal]
