Burning 47 minutes "The tragic epic: Harden uses flesh and blood to fight the arrogance of the entire league

When the timer's buzzing ripped through the night sky in Los Angeles, the scene of Harden slumping on the floor made countless old fans red. The 36-year-old veteran scored 28 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists with a 38% shooting percentage, and his 47-minute super long playing time almost crushed the entire locker room - this is the seventh time in his career, and the fourth consecutive team to play in the tiebreak. But the reality is cruel: the Clippers lost to the Nuggets 101-120 after the third quarter crash.

The dignity of veterans should not be kidnapped by data

Those who are still mocking "Harden has assisted again" might as well look at his red eyes during the post-match interview. When he broke through Jokic three times in a row in the third quarter, he scored 21, and when he hit a key three-pointer with five players in 1 minute and 32 seconds before the final game - these scenes should have been torn apart the label of "data brushes"! Hardcore data averaged 21.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and 7 assists in his 216-year playoff career, and Gu Yong's figure in 6 tiebreaks. Which young man dares to say "I'm more desperate than him"?

The Clippers' defeat was a collective crime between the management and the coaching staff. What's more cruel is that after this defeat, Harden's situation became increasingly embarrassing. He only has one year and $120 million left, while the Clippers' book salary has reached 230 million. While fans are still arguing about "Whether Harden should be traded", the capital market's abacus has already begun: if Harden is retained, the Clippers will need to use role players such as Okafor and Powell to make room; if they trade, they will face the dilemma of "no one dares to take 120 million". It's like a black humor - when the player burns his torch with his 16 years of youth, the team is calculating the "burning cost". Look at the Nuggets next door, the core lineup composed of Jokic, Murray and Porter Jr., which one is not the long-term investment planned by the management five years ago?

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Those who question him "falling off the chain at critical moments" remember the crazy way he tear his jerseys when he beat the Clippers in 2015? Do those who laugh at him for his "outdated style of playing" see him practicing alone at 4 a.m. every day? The NBA is no longer an era of "one-star-shot" and see how the Nuggets use Jokic to attract double-teams to create open space for Murray. Compared with the Clippers' group of reckless men who only know how to hold the ball and break hard in the third quarter - when Harden is double-teamed, who dares to respond? Who can pick-and-roll? This is the consequence of the management not building a system for twenty years! The dilemma of Harden in the capital era is essentially the strangle of capital's spirit of basketball. When Xiao Ka had a maximum salary of 160 million yuan but had a weak soccer shrimp in the playoffs, of course, the management would rather invest in "that is, combat power" than building a system. But Harden is different. He is very much like the Thunder boy who was working on video with a backpack in 2009. When someone posted a million-dollar salary on social media, he was using 47 minutes to interpret what the ultimate belief in professional basketball is.