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  • appearing on all things covered podcast.

  • Former NBA player in champion Antoine Walker said he was not a fan of the Nets trading for James Harden, saying quote.

  • I'm not a James Harden guy and it's not personal, but you can't win with that style.

  • I don't think you can win with his style.

  • Any time.

  • It takes a guy 678 dribbles to get to where he has to go, that's a problem.

  • It works today because it's more of a pick and roll league, so he gets away with a lot of things now.

  • But I would not leverage my future for James Harden now.

  • Harden responded to the criticism before the All Star Game.

  • There's pick and rolls that happened.

  • Basketball.

  • There's isolations that happen in basketball.

  • Um, and I do both, so I don't really understand what that means.

  • I just, uh, stuff like that only impair attention to, especially somebody that has no credibility.

  • Alright, Kendrick Perkins here with us.

  • Stephen A.

  • Are you surprised of Antoine Walker's criticism of Harden?

  • I don't agree with his criticism of it, but let me stay.

  • For the record, I don't agree with the way that James James Harden just said either about him not having any credibility.

  • Antoine Walker played in the NBA for many years.

  • He won a championship.

  • He was in Boston going to conference finals.

  • Antoine Walker was no scrub.

  • Antoine Walker could ball you, Anton one.

  • I don't agree with his opinion about James Harden.

  • Let me be very, very clear.

  • I think that's the James Harden in Houston he was talking about, I think if you're watching James Harden play in Brooklyn, James Harden is a top league in VP candidate.

  • He has been nothing short of sensational and the selflessness that he has put on display.

  • He deserves a lot of credit for that.

  • He doesn't deserve to be judged by how he looked in Houston, where he was dribbling the ball so much.

  • He wasn't moving the basketball and things of that nature.

  • That's not the James Harden that's in Brooklyn.

  • James Harden, that's in Brooklyn, has embraced the point guard responsibilities, running this offense and running this team.

  • He deserves a boatload of credit for that, but a simple I disagree with Antoine Walker would have sufficed to sit up there and say that Antoine Walker has no credibility is false.

  • Antoine Walker was a player in the NBA.

  • I've watched him on TV, giving his basketball analysis.

  • He's not ignorant of the or devoid of basketball knowledge or devoid of communication skills.

  • The brother knows what he's talking about.

  • It's just, you know, just in this particular situation, I just respectfully disagree with them.

  • But Antoine Walker is not absent of credibility.

  • And a lot of times these guys need to stop being so damn sensitive, especially against their own.

  • Antoine Walker is a is a member of the n B, A fraternity.

  • He knows basketball.

  • He knows what he's talking about.

  • But you can respectfully disagree with him without questioning his basketball knowledge.

  • I certainly wouldn't do that.

  • And I don't think it's appropriate for James Harden to do this in the situation, even though James Harden is balling and he's right about what he's saying about what he's doing.

  • And we're right about articulating what we've seen from him in Brooklyn as opposed to what we saw from him in Houston.

  • I totally don't agree with Antoine Walker about that, but I wouldn't question his credibility just because I don't agree with him.

  • I would simply say respectfully, bro.

  • I disagree with you on this point, and I would leave it at that.

  • Antoine Walker deserves more respect than that.

  • I got a lot to say about this.

  • Let me get through it quickly.

  • First of all, I totally agree with you, Stephen A.

  • Just and I know this is a debate show, but Antoine Walker just giving an opinion assessing someone's basketball game, Harden took it personally and went back at him kind of ad hominem, almost like attacking Antoine Walker himself.

  • It sounded like.

  • But let me just say this.

  • Um, there are two things here about what Antoine Walker said, and I disagree with what he said.

  • I disagree with his basketball content.

  • The first is James Harden almost won a championship playing the way he played, and I'm telling you, had Chris Paul not gotten hurt, I think they would have won.

  • And even with Chris Paul, his second best player hurt, they had no business in a Game seven in a tough game against the Golden State Warriors, with KD Steph Clay drag a dollar, everybody, What were they doing there?

  • A lot of that had to do with James Harden.

  • Now if I ever had a beef with hard and it was just, he hasn't come up big enough in the clutch.

  • Not that his game is not conducive to winning, right.

  • I haven't been in that game even without Chris Paul.

  • If they don't go, Oh for 27 from three in one stretch, they beat the Warriors without Chris Paul and they go on to win a championship.

  • I'm telling you, that's the first thing.

  • So I disagree with Antoine Walker's basketball assessment, and I think that's a problem.

  • Like people like Phil Jackson.

  • Greatest coach effort.

  • Right?

  • Charles Barkley, the biggest personality in the world, both of those guys.

  • When the Warriors before they won the championship we're talking about you can't win in that style.

  • Too many.

  • Three point.

  • You know Phil Jackson.

  • You missed threes that leads to run out Charles Barkley.

  • The jump shooting team doesn't win when, in fact, it's the only kind of team that wins nowadays because the league was changing from what they knew and were accustomed to.

  • So that's part of it.

  • The other thing, though, is that James Harden doesn't play the way Antoine Walker, saying he plays quite anymore.

  • That was from a couple years ago, that was in Houston.

  • If you watch James Harden on Brooklyn, I think it's the kind of game that anyone would say.

  • If you want ball movement, setting up your teammates all that James Harden is playing the best basketball of his career and very much a style that can win a championship.

  • So I disagree with Antoine Walker's content, and I think he's looking at hardened from a couple of years ago.

  • Not today.

  • But that doesn't mean Harden has to attack the man.

  • The man has an opinion.

  • It might be wrong.

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