The Philadelphia 76ers brought in James Harden ahead of the 2022 trade deadline. The guard failed to make an impact on the team despite a promising start with the Sixers. Once again, he couldn’t deliver in the playoffs and the Miami Heat dominated the 76ers in the second round of the postseason.
Everybody has criticized Harden for his performance, calling him ‘washed’ and many other things. The Beard appeared to be the right piece to complement Joel Embiid, but they mightily struggled to get things going.
Many people went on to say this duo would be a new version of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, which was far away from reality. One of the players compared reacted to those claims and called out those who dared to put Embiid and Harden at the same level as Shaq and Kobe.
O’Neal himself shared a tweet on Instagram, saying that nobody should compare Shaq and Kobe with any other duo:
“Remember when everyone was saying that Harden and Embiid was Kobe and Shaq? Don’t y’all ever say that again,” the tweet reads.
Shaq posted this and added something more to make it clear that nobody is close to the level and quality he and Kobe had:
“Only one superduo ever created , yea i said it, ONLY ONE. Miss u kobe,” Shaq captioned the post with.
O’Neal took offense when the comparisons started and waited for the moment to trash those who dared to compare one of the greatest duos in NBA history with two players that only played a couple of games together.
Philadelphia once again disappointed fans and after this move, it’s unclear what else they can do to have another chance at the championship in a stacked Eastern Conference. Harden isn’t the same player he used to be, and that would become a problem for the organization now.
