{"id":729989,"date":"2026-05-09T18:24:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T18:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/729989\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T18:24:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T18:24:21","slug":"nick-wright-apologizes-for-comparing-athletes-to-james-harden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/729989\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Wright apologizes for comparing athletes to James Harden"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>James Harden is an 11-time NBA All-Star, a three-time scoring champion, and he was the league\u2019s MVP in the 2017-18 season. However, the same level of success certainly hasn\u2019t translated to his postseason career, and those issues showed up in a big way in the Cleveland Cavaliers\u2019 107-97 loss to the Detroit Pistons in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.<\/p>\n<p>Harden scored 10 points on 3-of-13 shooting from the field (4-of-4 on free throws), while going 0-for-4 on three-pointers. He also had a team-high four turnovers and finished with easily a game-worst plus\/minus of -15. It was a dreadful performance from a veteran star on the big stage, and it played a huge part in the Cavs falling behind 2-0 in the best-of-seven series.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, the Harden critics were understandably out in full force on the debate shows, including First Things First on FS1.<\/p>\n<p>Nick Wright was so disgusted with the latest poor postseason performance from Harden that he even apologized to other athletes that he\u2019s compared to Harden in the past.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like to issue an apology,\u201d Wright explained. I would like to apologize to Lamar Jackson, and Aaron Judge, and any other athlete who\u2019s an all-time great regular-season player, who hit some speed bumps in the postseason that I have compared to James Harden. There is only one James Harden. There will ever only be one James Harden.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/getnickwright?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@getnickwright<\/a>: \u201cI would like to apologize to Lamar Jackson and Aaron Judge and any other athlete\u2026 that I have compared to James Harden. There is only one James Harden.\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Chris_Broussard?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@Chris_Broussard<\/a>: \u201cShame on the Cavaliers for thinking James Harden was going to solve your playoff woes.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/sDmKluZIGH\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/sDmKluZIGH<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 First Things First (@FTFonFS1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FTFonFS1\/status\/2052838138452578699?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">May 8, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom the biggest game of his college career, round of 32 against my alma mater Syracuse when he went 2-for-10, to the NBA Finals in OKC, to a Game 6 with the Rockets back when I believed in Harden\u2026 to a 1-for-10 in an elimination game in Brooklyn, to a Game 6 in Philly with their season on the line, to a Game 6 with the Clippers with the season on the line, to last night,\u201d Wright said. \u201cWe\u2019ve never seen anyone like this guy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd here\u2019s maybe the worst part\u2026 Those are all offensive numbers. Offense was not the worst part of his game yesterday\u2026 It is an unwinnable style of basketball,\u201d Wright continued. \u201cThey traded for him for this time of the year, which, the moment they did, it was insane.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes,\u201d First Things First co-panelist Chris Broussard agreed. \u201cShame on the Cavaliers for thinking James Harden was going to solve your playoff woes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If Harden doesn\u2019t put together a much better Game 3, and a much better overall series, the criticism of his legacy will only increase.<\/p>\n<p>\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Harden is an 11-time NBA All-Star, a three-time scoring champion, and he was the league\u2019s MVP in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":729990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[8250,7,14709,193,188,14710,13467,560,23482,3114],"class_list":["post-729989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-aaron-judge","tag-basketball","tag-chris-broussard","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-first-things-first","tag-fs1","tag-james-harden","tag-lamar-jackson","tag-nick-wright"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116546021890738206","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729989","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=729989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}