CJ McCollum labels many James Harden critics as ‘jealous’

On his podcast, Portland’s CJ McCollum blasted critics of James Harden. He’s the latest in a wave of NBA players to show their support.

In a newly released episode of the “Pull Up” podcast hosted by CJ McCollum, the Portland Trail Blazers guard launched a passionate defense of Houston Rockets star James Harden against his legion of critics.

The conversation begins with a look at the NBA’s slate of Christmas Day games, which includes Harden’s Rockets (21-9) facing off with the five-time defending Western Conference champion Golden State Warriors.

From there, McCollum weighed in on the historic season to date by Harden — who is currently leading the league at 38.6 points per game. That’s the highest scoring total by any NBA player in the last 56 years.

Among McCollum’s statements on Harden:

A lot of people neglect the fact that James is an amazing basketball player. … He has a unique skill set, an amazing ability to not only score for himself, but make players better around him. I think people are just mad with how he’s mastered the game.

You know you’re doing something right when people find out ways to hate on you. You’re talking about a guy who [recently] scored 50 points essentially in consecutive games, and it wasn’t even a story. That’s how good he is.

McCollum is far from alone in that assessment. Within the past few weeks, other current or former NBA players to publicly voice their support for Harden have included future Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade, Toronto’s Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam, Orlando’s Jonathan Isaac, and Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis — just to name a few.

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Regarding Harden’s numerous critics over style of play, McCollum said:

I know there’s a lot of people who are against the way he plays. They say ‘It’s bad for the game, he’s cheating the game, he’s manipulating the referees.’ The whole point in sports is to figure out ways to master the game. … Be as successful as possible. Not only individually, but collectively as a team. For him to generate fouls is good for not only himself, but it’s good for his team, because it makes them effectively impossible to guard once they go off the dribble.

I think a lot of people are just jealous, honestly.

Los Angeles Clippers star Paul George also noted recently that Harden’s numbers were all about his team winning games.

McCollum, who is averaging 22.4 points per game this season with the Trail Blazers (14-17), then hinted at a double-standard with regards to the way Harden is viewed by the public relative to another MVP frontrunner in Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic.

To that point, McCollum said:

I think the Luka Doncic comparisons… the way Luka draws fouls at times, I think it’s similar. It’s not consistent, because Luka hasn’t been in the league as long. But Luka is great at getting fouled on three-pointers. Luka is great at using his body. He’s great at drawing contact. But it’s funny how they have similar games in the sense of playing iso, playing 1 on 1. It’s flashy, it’s fun, they still make their teammates better. But it’s the perception of how they’re viewed in the public eye that’s very interesting to me.

The complete podcast can be listened to below, with the commentary on Harden beginning at the 4:45 mark. McCollum indicated at one point that he believes Harden could break Kobe Bryant’s modern scoring record (set in January 2006) with 81 points in a single game, noting that Harden already scored 60 in just three quarters earlier this season.

As far as his own team goes, McCollum’s Trail Blazers lost to the Rockets, 132-108, back on Nov. 18 in their only meeting so far of the 2019-20 season. In that game, Harden scored a game-high 36 points on efficient shooting (11-of-19, or 57.9%) from the field.

The two sides play again on Jan. 15 in Houston.

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