pinpointed the diminishing of the regular season.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cPlayoffs are the most important part of the year but u can\u2019t make the playoffs without a great regular season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Too many times we\u2019ve heard, yeah they\u2019re playing great right now but let\u2019s see what happens in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
This is the \u201canalysis\u201d (if we want to call it that) that has marred James Harden, especially during his days in H-Town.<\/p>\n
Unguardable tour? Doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s see what he does in the playoffs. Top seed in the Western Conference and most wins in the NBA?<\/p>\n
Yeah, but wait until the playoffs start.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf u don\u2019t win a ring, you\u2019re a loser.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is merely a lazy way to look at the game. And an unfair approach, as it pertains to players and great teams.<\/p>\n
Players get compared to other players and the verdict regarding who is better generally comes down to who has more championship rings, sadly. Not the impact of said player (or players).<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s use Harden again. The running debate has been Harden vs. Dwyane Wade.<\/p>\n
A classic case of offensive superiority vs defensive superiority (although both were underrated on the other end). The discussion too often centers around Wade\u2019s three championships vs. Harden\u2019s shortage of a title.<\/p>\n
Or the conversation regarding Charles Barkley vs. Draymond Green (which is a comical one).<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, Green\u2019s four championships get magnified, since Barkley doesn\u2019t have any.<\/p>\n
Not to mention Barkley has made himself rather unlikeable in his post-playing career for some of his \u201chot takes\u201d. Even though Green is far from a fan favorite.<\/p>\n
(As a side note, hot take culture has also ruined discourse, but that\u2019s an entirely different conversation).<\/p>\n
The reality is winning a championship is a team accomplishment. An overall reflection of the sum of it\u2019s parts.<\/p>\n
And typically a result of a few lucky bounces and\/or breaks. Great players are great players, with or without a title.<\/p>\n
A championship doesn\u2019t magnify them or make them great. The absence of one doesn\u2019t mean they suck or are a loser.<\/p>\n
If that were the case, they wouldn\u2019t even be worthy of mention, let alone be in the NBA.<\/p>\n
Durant is right. The discourse needs to change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant\u2019s social media platform is usually utilized for trolling. Or humorously engaging in banter with fans, in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,4066,6,211,1993],"class_list":{"0":"post-514389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-houstonrockets","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-rockets","14":"tag-rockets-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115832559148763248","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}