This coming season, there will once again be plenty of eyes on the LA Clippers. They may not have the best roster in the NBA, but they do have two future Hall-of-Famers in Kawhi Leonard and James Harden. Those guys will carry much of the load as the Clippers attempt to reach the playoffs for a sixth time in the last seven seasons.
There are certainly varying opinions of these two big-name players. Arguments supporting them or in opposition of them are all common, as both Kawhi and James have big achievements to their name over the course of their careers, but both also have had their fair share of shortcomings.
Rest assured, it is hard to say something about these two that has not already been said before. Recently, Evan Fournier became the latest notable player to offer his take on James Harden. After announcing his decision to continue his professional basketball career overseas, Fournier chimed in on the topic of where Harden stands in all-time rankings.
Evan Fournier said James Harden is a top 3 shooting guard ever
Recently, Fournier decided to host a Q&A on X, asking for questions from fans he proceeded to answer. When asked about his personal top five shooting guards of all-time list, Evan listed out Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, James Harden, Dwyane Wade and Allen Iverson in that order.
When asked about Harden's legacy, Fournier made a strong statement. "I understand. I think that if Harden doesn't fall on the GSW cheat code team for 3 years he ends up NBA champion and then we talk about him differently," he said. Bear in mind, this statement was translated from French via Google, so one or two words might be different.
But regardless of the translation, Evan is making a clear claim that I believe he misses the mark with. Yes, Harden's offensive peak was tremendous, and he absolutely reached some incredible heights over the course of his athletic prime. But putting him as the third-best shooting guard ever is still a bit of a reach. He should of course be ranked below Kobe and MJ, but there are several others that still deserve to be above him as well.
Like it or not, much of a player's all-time legacy is judged by how you performed when everything was on the line. For several of the players Evan listed below James, those do-or-die moments in their careers resulted in them winning a championship or multiple championships. Harden has yet to get over this hump. There were certainly times where James was overmatched, as many were against the Durant-era Warriors. But there were also plenty of times where he simply could not get the job done.