Harden is destined to be without a championship in his NBA career! Kobe has passed away for 5 years, and these words are fulfilled every year

James Harden's performance in the first round of the 2025 NBA playoffs has once again caused widespread controversy. The Clippers lost to the Nuggets 101-120. Harden scored only 7 points in 2 of 8 shots. Although he gave 13 assists, his sluggish score and his habit of "small" in key battles became the focus of public opinion.

He averaged 18.7 points and 9.1 assists per game in this round of series, but G5 and G7 made a total of 4 of 19 shots in the two key matches, continuing his label of "the regular season bottoming and the playoffs cannot be relied on." Since 2020, Harden has averaged only 27.5% of his game in the knockout stage and 16.7% of his three-point shooting percentage. The 2024-25 season ended in a controversial manner, and its technical characteristics, psychological quality and age factors together constitute the "key war curse".

After the Clippers were eliminated, there was a comment about Kobe about Harden in 2019. At that time, Kobe predicted that Harden was destined to win the championship in his career.

1. Every season James Harden proves that Kobe Bryant is correct.

When it comes to the best shooting guard in history, many people think that Harden can be compared with those of Wade and Kobe.

In any case, Harden is a phenomenal scorer and his regular season performance is also an elite. Unfortunately, Harden has performed poorly throughout his career in the playoffs.

Kobe once said on The Jump: "I am not keen on this in terms of winning the championship. I don't think his style will never win the championship."

"If you let a player attack at the top of the free throw line or on the wing for a long time, relying on pick-and-roll cooperation, it is equivalent to always exposing the offensive intention to the defense." Kobe added. What consequences will this tactical arrangement lead to?

"The defense can set the targeted defense, especially in the playoffs, this style of play is too easy to be cracked. " Kobe pointed out incisively.

However, in the NBA, there are many stars like Harden who are skilled but difficult to win the championship.

They rely too much on core players to hold the ball (Doncic is also in the same situation, and Doncic's performance in the Lakers this season is the same). They can win through personal abilities in the regular season, but they are easily predicted to be double-teamed under high-intensity defense in the playoffs.

In fact, Kobe emphasized team basketball, which disrupts the defensive formation through unball running and strong and weak side transfers (refer to the Warriors' pass and cut system) to avoid falling into the "bright card offense" dilemma.

2. However, Kobe still praises Harden

There is no doubt that Harden's basketball style is difficult to grow into the captain of a dynasty team, and Harden is destined to be recorded in history as "one of the strongest singles machines in history".

Ultimately, Harden will become one of the best players in league history. But in terms of winning, Harden has not yet found the secret to success.

Maybe this is fate. Kobe saw through everything, but things were impermanent and encountered a helicopter crash.

Just like his agreement with his wife Vanessa, the two refused to take a plane or ship together, in order to prevent misfortune, so that they can leave one person to take care of the child...

This article was originally edited by Yitu Sports

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