Former NBA star Gilbert Arenas argued with his former teammate, Nick Young about how James Harden hasn’t gotten the proper respect for leading the Houston Rockets during the 2017-18 season. The Golden State Warriors, who had four All-Stars, including Kevin Durant, were fierce rivals of Harden’s Rockets at the time.
On Sunday, a clip from Arenas’ show, “Gil’s Arena” was posted on X (formerly Twitter), where Arenas argued with Young. During the 2017-18 season, Harden led Houston to the Western Conference finals, where they faced against the Warriors. However, Golden State’s stardom was too much and they were victorious after seven games.
The Warriors had Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
“Why James Haden not getting credit for this roster?” Arenas started.
“There’s four Hall of Famers on this side, four. We got four Hall of Famers, we see what those four Hall of Famers did to LeBron James. They whooped his a**. Why isn’t James Harden getting credit for taking these four to the brinks? They (Warriors) went to the championship and molly whopped the King.”
Golden State made it to the NBA Finals and faced LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, sweeping them in four games.
"Why isn't James Harden getting credit for taking [the KD Warriors] to the brink?!"
Gil goes berserk during 2018 Western Conference Finals debate. pic.twitter.com/fg57ssTTxM
— Gilbert Arenas (@GilsArenaShow) November 24, 2024
Chris Paul helped Harden, according to Young, who was a member of the Warriors at the time. However, the Rockets lost the conference finals because Paul missed Games 6 and 7 due to injury.
“Then you still got two more Hall of Famers. That’s how good your team was, sir. You came off the bench and you was better than d**n near 95% of that Houston team… That’s how good Harden was.”
Young brought up the supporting cast that Harden had and mentioned Eric Gordon and Trevor Ariza as decent players. However, Arenas said that it didn’t compare to the other Hall of Fame players Golden State had.
“Compare their lineups to each other, that’s what this is. Not saying Trevor Ariza’s trash. Compared to who he’s playing, this was a lopsided thing and this group took y’all to seven games.”
How good was James Harden during the 2017-18 season?
James Harden had one of the best seasons of his career during the 2017-18 campaign. He led the league in scoring with 30.4 points on 36% shooting from deep. Harden also averaged 5.4 rebounds and 8.8 assists. The 6-foot-5 guard won the regular season MVP, leading the Rockets to a 65-17 record in the Western Conference, securing the top seed.
In the postseason, his numbers slightly went down. However, his contributions were still significant to the team as they made it to the conference finals. Harden averaged 28.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and 6.8 assists through 17 games in the playoffs. In every Game 1 he played in the three rounds, he finished with at least 40 points and more than five assists.
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Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen with Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
