James Harden has a well-known reputation as a flopper. He’s led the NBA in free-throw attempts three of the past four seasons, and has had a free-throw rate of over 50 percent in every season except his rookie year in 2009-10. It’s hard for people to complain too much, because it works for him — he was the MVP runner-up in 2014-15 and was second in the league in scoring last season. But the criticism is there, and it’s not entirely unfounded. But Harden doesn’t want to hear about it when he’s playing a summer pickup game at Drew League.
A fan heckled Harden during a game over the weekend about his free throws, leading to this hilarious interaction that was miraculously captured on video.
From the looks of it, Harden explained to the fan that he was hit on the play, and the fan clearly wasn’t buying it. “Be honest, man, we’re boy scouts,” he said.
Not that it mattered much because, again, Harden got the last laugh. He was named player of the game after scoring 42 points and putting up six rebounds, four assists and three steals — in other words, exactly what you’d expect from an All-NBA-level player playing in a pickup game.
Player of the Game for LAUNFD: @JHarden13 (42 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals)#thedrew
— Drew League (@DrewLeague) August 14, 2016
