‘Don’t want to play like this’: James Harden told Warriors’ Steph Curry he hated Rockets’ isolation offense

A video of the 2019 All-Star Weekend has emerged in which James Harden laments about the Rockets’ iso style offense to Stephen Curry.

The All-Star break is one of the best times in the NBA. The biggest stars from all around the league gather at one place and celebrate the game. In 2019, the All-Star Game was held in Charlotte.

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The 2019 All-Star Game was a star-studded battle between Team Giannis and Team LeBron. Stephen Curry was a part of Team Giannis and was recorded talking to team coach Mike Budenholzer. There he was telling Mike about a conversation he had with Harden earlier during the break.

“He doesn’t want to play like this”: Stephen Curry recalls conversation with James Harden

In this video, Stephen Curry is seen recalling his conversation with James Harden.

The Warriors star revealed that Harden hated Rockets’ isolation style offense and wanted more ball movement, contrary to Harden’s image in the league.

Stephen Curry congratulated Harden for his tremendous performance throughout the season. Steph Curry was seen saying the following:

“I talked to James [Harden] in the back…obviously complimented him on what he’s done. First thing he says is, it’s fun, but I want to play different. Playing by myself or w/e, heroball — he doesn’t want to play like that. He wants a system where they can actually play beautiful basketball.”

You can watch the video here

JAMES HARDEN 🔥
One of the best offensive players ever! pic.twitter.com/K2qEMbvUfj

— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) November 11, 2020

This conversation happened back in 2019 when Chris Paul was still a part of the Rockets. The Rockets had faced the Warriors in the WCF the previous season. The Warriors had barely managed to scrape a 4-3 victory, even though they had KD.

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What does this conversation mean? Does it affect the current date Rockets too?

Since this conversation took place in 2019, the first conclusion that can be drawn is that he was referring to his troubles with Chris Paul. When Chris Paul got traded, it was revealed that things were tense between both the stars and the two hadn’t actually talked in over 2 months prior to their last game together.

Even now, things don’t seem very different from as they were with Chris Paul. Russ just asked for a trade, the Rockets got eliminated in the second round again, and Harden is back once again to being a one-man scoring machine. If James Harden still feels the same way as he did back then, the Rockets need to change their style of play, or risk losing their biggest star.