James Harden > LeBron James? James Harden > Carmelo Anthony? James Harden > Kevin Durant? James Harden > Chris Paul? James Harden > Everyone?
Obviously, the answers to those questions are no, no, no, no, and—sorry, James!—no. But the Rockets guard is nothing if not confident. So when ESPN.com's Scoop Jackson sat down with Harden recently and asked him who the best basketball player alive is, Harden didn't hesitate to offer up his (obviously biased) opinion.
"Myself," he said.
"You made that sound like it was an easy answer," Jackson then said to him.
"It is," Harden replied. "Myself."
Himself?
To be fair to Harden, he did later say that he's "still trying to catch guys like LeBron, KD, and Kobe" and also admitted that "until I get rings, I can't say anything" regarding his skills on the court. So he's well aware of the fact that most people wouldn't agree with his assessment of himself. We also realize that Harden had to say himself when he was asked who the best basketball player alive is, just like Stephen Curry had to say himself last week when Dan Patrick asked him if he thinks he's a better offensive player than LeBron James.
But it's still crazy to hear Harden refer to himself as the best basketball player on the planet right now. We respect the confidence that he has in himself, but Harden is not > than anyone listed above and there are still quite a few things he needs to improve on—he can start here—before his name and "best basketball player alive" can be mentioned in the same sentence.
1.
[via Pro Basketball Talk]
