A Deep and Honest Convo About James Harden's Career Decisions

We're thrilled to welcome Richard Jefferson and Tim Legler back on The Old Man and the Three this week. In this clip, they have passionate discussion with JJ about the decisions James Harden has made throughout his career, if he really is his own system, and what he needs to do to to extend his career successfully.

Subscribe to The Old Man and The Three podcast w/ JJ Redick (ESPN / First Take) and Tommy Alter YouTube channel today for more NBA analysis, player interviews and highlights.

[im_so_zoned]

Tim Legler and Richard Jefferson are such great guests. I could listen to those two guys talk basketball all day.

[henryzhao]

This is what ESPN is supposed to be. Guys with experience plus real intelligence, talking ball. No bullshit.

Edit: I’m quite aware of having to do things a consumer digs. All I’m asking for is once a week, a one hour segment of these three. Give casuals a CHANCE to stumble onto something intelligence JFC.

[bobbob-cdyl]

Man this convo was so good and refreshing from the media degeneracy of late

[adarious]

Amazing trio, 3 guys with good vibes & good conversation

[mario]

I’d legit watch a podcast of these 3 every week. One of the most genuine and informational convos ab hoops I ever heard.

[Bluewildangel]

When we actually have genuine basketball conversations it’s way more authentic rather then just hating to hate, love to see it

[tychapman]

god it's so refreshing to see a grounded logical conversation about this man's career

[kiki]

Please bring RJ more, you 2 together are great

[greatwhitesufi]

Isaiah Thomas retired at 32-33 after his Achilles tore in 94, Ewing played till his knees almost fell off at the age of 40, Dominique had a resurgence after he tore his Achilles as well. So there's always those few who seemed to just play longer than one thought

[optimusprime]

This show is better than First Take and Undisputed could ever be.

[BodhisativaTV]

JJ bro I just wanna say you have done an incredible job with this show.
This is by far the best talk about James Harden I’ve heard, and I watch basketball debates everyday lol

[TheDropInn]

Hell yes this is my dream podcast lineup in terms of NBA media. Top shelf!

[grafzhl]

Really liked the perspective that when you lose 5% of your edge, you inadvertently widen the circle of people who can take you on by an order of magnitude. Plays into the famous quote "I'm closer to LeBron than you are to me" by Brian Scalabrine. The NBA be stacked like that.

[nacem]

I've been watching basketball since the 80's and watching you 3 is a breath of fresh air. THANK U

[KDuff-]

Hardens most MASSIVE mistake was asking out of Brooklyn IMO. Nets we’re gonna pay Harden the full max even with his production decline. I wasn’t a “fan” of the Nets big 3 but if healthy they would have won in 2021 against Pheonix & 2022 against Golden State. The Dynamic of Harden as the primary playmaker, Kyrie as primary scorer & KD giving you 30 playing off-ball pretty much was a guaranteed 130ppg(Nets averaged 118PPG in 2021 while big 3 barley played together)
-In fairness Nets never added P.J Tucker& let Jeff Green walk in 21’ which I also believe made Harden unhappy because Tucker said he thought he was going to Brooklyn but ended up in Milwaukee. Tucker only made 5.7mil & the Nets had a 6Mil Trade Exception & Nets NEEDED a defensive anchor that didn’t want to shoot.

[RILDIGITAL]

Harden's performance is indeed a 'system' and his transformation and adaptability over the years is significant. Nevertheless, as you pointed out quite eloquently, he does need to make further tweaks for the true essence of his talent to shine.

[DarkKing-vmli]

I think this was an extremely fair conversation about him. Sometimes it feels like Legler talks too much about his negatives but Harden is a superstar with a crazy ceiling AND floor so no one is obligated to talk about the positives when the negatives become very glaring. Still I appreciate the greatness more than the negatives

[MrPeanutButter]

man, it's real easy to ignore the bs around me when we are spoiled with such good, consistent NBA content, first thing I type into youtube every day is JJ

[MundaneFailure]

Love the JJ+RJ combo when calling games, they’re great here too and Tim is awesome as always

[wxxcable]

I’m missing this type of podcast, great vibe, great/knowledgeable conversations, great guests