Earlier this week, James Harden made a pretty serious statement when he said that the Houston Rockets haven’t done anything until the team achieves its ultimate goal in winning a championship. It was a strong message from the presumed MVP, one that his head coach doesn’t totally seem like he agrees with.
Mike D’Antoni spoke to Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN about how the Rockets’ season will be viewed if the team fails to win a ring. In the eyes of the D’Antoni, the inability to take home a championship is not something that will “diminish” what Houston has managed to achieve this year.
“I read something the other day [that said] sure James Harden should be the MVP, sure Chris Paul and James have been great, sure they set a franchise record [for wins by] about six games’ worth, but they’ll ultimately be judged by if they win a championship or not,” D’Antoni told Youngmisuk. “Really? It doesn’t diminish what these guys have done.”
D’Antoni made it clear that he’d “love” to win a ring, but used the example of Steve Nash, who never won a championship, as proof that he doesn’t see the inability to win a championship as an indictment against anyone.
“I don’t buy it is all about the rings because there are a lot of guys that got rings that can’t play a lick,” D’Antoni said. “They happened to be on the bench with some great players, so I don’t buy into that totally.”
It’s an interesting argument from D’Antoni for a few reasons. The obvious one is that he sees the NBA season as it’s own thing and not something that should be viewed through the lens of whether you can win 16 games in the postseason. But the more interesting one is that the Rockets are led by three guys who are viewed as dudes who historically can’t get the job done in the playoffs.
D’Antoni, Harden, and Paul have all come under criticism for their inability to win games in the postseason. Harden hasn’t made it to the Finals since he was a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder, while neither D’Antoni nor Paul have ever made it that far period. Plus there was last year, when the Rockets (sans Paul) made it to the conference semifinals and laid an egg in their final game, a 39-point loss to the Kawhi Leonard-less Spurs at home.
Perhaps this year will be different, and the Rockets will be able to navigate the Western Conference en route to an NBA title. But if not, D’Antoni sounds like he’ll still look back on what has been a fantastic season in Houston fondly.
(Via ESPN)
