So James Harden was crossed over by a player on the Nigerian national team during the USA Olympic team’s thumping of another hapless opponent. But Harden says it never happened.
Yo, James – we love you and your throwback tenacity here at Basketball Elite. But you got crossed over. And everyone – absolutely everyone, with no exceptions – gets crossed over at some point. Lebron James has. Micheal Jordan did (both at UNC and in the pros). The only players who might be able to say they never have been crossed over are those who don’t play defense, which a far worse sin on the court than getting your ankles broken once in a while. Any player who says they’ve never been crossed over in a game is just lying. This mentality of players to claim this is the same now as players who run away when someone’s going in for a dunk because they don’t want to be ‘posterized’ or ‘dunked on’. Just forget it, kids, grow up already. Just because your AAU coach said that never made it true.
But James should be careful. Blaming the shoes might cause his next shoe deal to be less favorable. At least he doesn’t have a court endorsement deal.
And, to be frank, right now USA basketball can worry about little nothings like this, when they run away from teams within the first 4 minutes of the game and spend the rest of the night wondering if they should only shoot two’s.