The marketability of teams and players plays a huge role in how neutral fans and casual viewers perceive them. Sports media hyping up only a handful of players and ignoring the rest makes it seem that the league isn’t as talented as it really is. And Spencer Dinwiddie can tell you firsthand how it feels to be ignored.
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During an appearance on the Run Your Race podcast, he recalled a game from the 2018-19 season. Despite his huge contribution in an overtime win against the Rockets, James Harden ended up getting all the plaudits and highlight packages. Dinwiddie and his former teammate Theo Pinson spoke about it while reminiscing about the game.
Harden was at the peak of his powers that season, averaging 36 points per game. He and his Rockets took on the Nets in a seemingly uninteresting regular season game. However, the scoreline proved it was anything but that. The game ended 145-142 in the Nets’ favor in overtime. Dinwiddie scored 33 points off the bench for Brooklyn.
He not only hit the shot that forced overtime but also banked the game-winner. However, he did not get his flowers. Social media and talk shows sidelined his stellar display. Instead, they focused on Harden’s 58-point performance.
Despite the reigning MVP losing the game and shooting 5-of-19 from beyond the arc, he was the talk of the town. Dinwiddie was exasperated that his performance wasn’t being talked about. He told Pinson,
“He dropped [58], and I won the game, and they didn’t put my highlights on ESPN, I was HOT. I was like bro I have [33] and win the game, like, game-winner, and they talking about James got [58].”
He did, however, mention that Harden’s run in 2018-19 was incredible. He mentioned how special it felt to see it happen. In reality, that was exactly why Harden got all the plaudits.
He was the reigning MVP, having averaged 30.4 ppg the year before, and the Rockets were considered touted as the best team in the league. He was breaking records on a nightly basis, and so his 58-point performance, despite it coming in a loss, was the main takeaway from the game.
James Harden’s incredible season
In the 2018-19 season, Harden not only averaged the most points since Michael Jordan put up 37.1 per game in 1986-87, but he also notched up 6.6 rebounds and 7.5 assists. He narrowly missed out on the MVP award to Giannis Antetokounmpo. But he had cemented his legacy as one of, if not the best offensive weapon the NBA had ever seen.
Dinwiddie alluded to this and added that the only two players who could ever come close to matching Harden’s impact. The Mavericks guard said,
“He’s the greatest offensive engine that we’ve seen and the only 2 people I see really being able to surpass that are probably Jokic and Luka. And we’re not talking about player, but just offensive engine, like hey, all three levels of scoring, deep range included, foul baiting, assist giving, like just all the areas of like offensive hub domination? Yeah.”
Five years on, nobody has come close to Harden’s production from that historic season. And the way the game is evolving, it doesn’t look like anyone will for quite a while.
