 What's the word y'all? See, I had a formula. Before the season started, I had a formula of what I wanted to do with this channel. Every weekday, I wanted to upload and talk about things that I saw the previous day, not upload on the weekend, but Monday be the recap video for the weekend, where so many things happen in the first weekend of the NBA season that some of the things that are on my mind are gonna have to wait for the future. Like, I wanna make an entire video about the 2021 draft. Josh Gideon, Jaylen Green played amazingly today. I saw Evan Mobley switch on to Trey Young and hold his own. Chris Dortay is killing the average in 20 points per. Davion Mitchell off-night had the first three, four games of his career against some of the greatest guards in the league and held his own. So there's so many players in his draft class that I wanna talk about. So I think that should be his own video. The Bulls are three and no right now. I wanna subvert the expectations of Bulls fans, but I think that might have to be his own video. The thing I wanna talk about specifically today is James Harden. So the first game of the day today, we saw the Charlotte Horn is going to the Barclays Center and win. Miles Bridges has been incredible so far this season, he had another big game. And in the fourth quarter, Is Smith played the entire fourth. Lamello was in the bench and Lamello played this big time leadership role because he was at the scorers table and Is Smith was killing and Lamello told James Rego, let Is do his thing because he's got the high hand. So Is Smith, Miles Bridges, the Martin brother. I don't even know which one of the Martin brothers is still on the team. Is it Caleb? Is it Cody? I don't really know. He's just from Charges. He had to step back three and ultimately they went into the Barclays Center and beat the Brooklyn Nets. And while this was happening, James Harden was not looking good. I mean, for the entire decision so far, James Harden says moments because he's still James Harden, but he hasn't looked like the James Harden they need, especially considering the Calry-Arvin situation, which we don't want to talk about stuff that happened outside the Barclays Center today. But he has not looked like the secondary star that they need him to be or even closer to the star that we saw last year or the year before that or the player that won an MVP award. So the stat line for James Harden today ended up being 15 points, seven rebounds, eight assists, eight turnovers and the big thing being the one for one from the free throw line. And that's got a lot of people talking. Three weeks ago, we dropped the video when I was going over what the NBA officials did to crack down on the foul baiting. Over the last couple of years, every NBA fan out there has had their own opinion about foul baiting, how it slows down the game, makes it harder to watch and the NBA decided, no, we're not doing that this year. And in that video, I talked about players like Trey Young, Luca Doncis, James Harden, Jimmy Butler, Jorlin B, some of the players that are known to do the foul baiting who live and die at their free throw line and how they would adjust. And right now, so far, three games to the season, James Harden has not adjusted very well. Steve Nash said James Harden has unfairly become the poster child of some of these rule changes with non-basketball moves. He said he's still getting fouled but feels the refs are hyper aware of them when Harden has the ball. Very weird for Steve Nash to say that considering the beginning of last year, he basically shut down Trey Young as his idol because he told Trey Young that you're not playing real basketball by doing the foul baiting. But now James Harden's on his team, you know what, we kind of want that foul baiting thing. And then James Harden also went on to his post game interview and agreed with the sentiment that Steve Nash has said here, hey, listen, I'm gonna foul to somebody's plays and they not calling it a foul, it's still a foul. So what I decided to do now, I watched this entire game and I thought it was fairly officiating. Now y'all know officiating is never a 100% right, 100% wrong. I thought it was fairly officiating and there's a YouTube channel out there that counts every possession that a player has the ball whether it be a shot attempt, an assist, a turnover, a block, whatever. And I wanna kind of look at some of the plays that James Harden attempted and trying to see if the refs actually missed a call that they probably should have got. Are they really being hyper aware that it's James Harden so we shouldn't give him that call or is it still James Harden trying to foul bait to get calls that he would have got last year? And NBA, please let me handle some dog. It's not often that I'm breaking down film like this and watching film, so let me handle some. We're just trying to look at the rules. So this channel name is NFH ball, I'll put it in the description. He does this for a lot of players, not just James Harden. And I'm gonna watch this eight minute film and anything that I see James Harden complain about or something that might've been contact and I called will pause and evaluate. All right y'all, so we got our first clip. This is in the first quarter, we're gonna have a pick and roll, Nicholas Klexen where he's gonna slip and it just basically leaves James Harden with the Martin brother. And when you slow this clip down, you determine if you believe that the referee should have called a foul or is it a good no call? Slow it down, slow it down. It looks like, in my opinion, it looks like one of the old moves James Harden did a lot over the last couple of seasons. We're doing the hook move to make it seem like a foul. James Harden finishes this because he's still a dog. But in my opinion, that doesn't look like something that the ref should have called a foul. I'm gonna say the refs are one for one right now. I'm gonna show you this one in real time. Now he's got McDaniels on him, he's gonna size McDaniels up. Boom, boom, that might have been a foul. And you see James Harden kind of complains. Now, the moment I think it might have been a foul is right here, you're gonna see McDaniels kind of like reach in. So it might have been on the floor foul, like hold on, right there, that right there. But then James in the instant went up because he felt the contact. So maybe that's what makes it a no call. And the commentators even say contact but no whistle. But what I think is even if, I think we just have the initial reach in contact. After that, I think McDaniels pulls off pretty easily. Like right there, there's not really contact with that left elbow. I think he missed a shot. Now this is where he did get his foul call. McDaniels swipes down on him going up and that's the one free throw tip he got. So here's another play where James Harden thinks he might have been fouled. You're gonna see LaMelo Ball come over with the help. I believe this is clean. That looks like a clean swipe but see James Harden doesn't really like that call at all. So this is the last one because after this James Harden got into some foul trouble. We drew like they drew a couple of charges and he had five fouls and he was basically out of the game and the game was over. So you tell me what you think about this last one. I won't even give no commentary. You think these are clean contests or a foul? Now that's just a few possessions throughout the entire game. This one YouTube video doesn't show every single thing that James Harden did or every single moment where he might have been fouled but it shows you some instances of no calls that Steve Nash and James Harden might see as should have been fouls. Statmew said James Harden is tempting three free throw attempts this season, lowest of his entire career and then someone put out a poll that got 3,000 votes that says is James Harden washed because of the new fouls and it's almost a 50-50 split. People believe in that because of the first three games of the NBA season where James Harden hasn't got the calls he wanted or the fact that he's only attempting three free throws per game. About half of the people voting here believe James Harden is washed now. Washed. Do you miss foul baiting 12%? Who said yes to this? I don't really know but 12% of people say yeah and you know my answer. No, I think these new rules are fired. The games feel more fluid. I think that is crazy for people to look at the first three games in NBA season and see James Harden averaging 20 and on him only attempting three free throw attempts a game and say ah, that's a wrap. Here's the downfall of James Harden's career. This moment right here when Adam Silva told the refs don't blow the whistle. Now James Harden's not gonna be effective. I believe that y'all are completely, completely bugging. Yes, it might take him some time to get used to him not getting as many calls as before but I cannot look at this man, James Harden, look at his resume and look at what he's done over just the past few seasons even if you take away the fouls and be like yeah, it might be it for him. I can't do it. I legit can't do it. If there's anything that I believe is contributing to James Harden not playing as great through the first three games, it's not really the foul thing. It's the Adam shape thing. James Harden, being honest, looks a little bit bigger than what we normally see him play at. And because of that, the replace in this game where James Harden would usually tap, tap, get past somebody, tap, tap, step back. Those things have been slightly slower. Miles Bridges completely picked this man pocket. James Harden is not a player that people are picking pockets up often but that first step is not as swift and that first step is not as fast and it has been in previous years. It has, he lost his step because of the injury in the playoffs, maybe, but I legit think it's because that man just looks bigger on the court than he did like two years ago. Like I'm gonna try to find some pictures of previous seasons. I just think my boy is out of shape. And I remember going into last year, I think he had like that vest on underneath his warmup and that picture of him looking kind of chunky. He was heavier than before but he wasn't that crazy. But like, let me show you some pictures from this is 2019, 2020. James Harden, James Harden, right? He's obviously got a ton of muscle. He is a tank, but he was also very fit. Now, let's go 2021. Let's look at now. Come on dog, these are, it's not the same. Oh, this is the picture that went viral. This is the picture that went viral. And this picture also went viral. Ah, think about it, that man James Harden has gone through a lot of body transformations in his career, man. Yeah, I remember that other off-season picture where he was super, super skinny. So I just searched James Harden on Twitter just to see what people were talking about as far as pictures goes. Here's a picture of James Harden. Here's a picture of James Harden. Here's also a picture of James Harden. And there's a picture of James Harden. There's a significant difference there. But James Harden said in his post game interview, like, hey, a lot of this is me trying to get used to to the flow of the offense still, which I can believe. He said he's been careless with the ball. I mean, eight turnovers, I can believe that as well. Yes, I do believe that the foul-baiting thing is playing a role in things, but I think it's kind of crazy to think that this man might be washed because he's not getting calls. And maybe the refs are holding their whistles a little bit more on James Harden than the beginning of the season. Even if that's the case, I don't know if that's gonna last for the entire season, you know? I think James Harden's got to do what James Harden does. And he mentioned this in his post game interview too. I just got to go out there and hoop and everything is gonna play the way this gonna play. Truth. They could definitely still use Kari Irvin. They could definitely still use Kari Irvin in the meantime, but hey, we don't know what's happening with that. Anyway, I've kind of learned my lesson when it comes to these type of things, whether it be with an individual player or a team. The beginning of the season is not a place to super overreact. Like it's fun for YouTube videos. It's fun to talk about these things, but it's definitely not a place for you to believe that it's all over with. Like the Lakers starting off 0-2 and almost 0-3. Shout out to Jamarant. That boy, Tamitri Jamal, is on some next level. That's why he used my MIP pick before the season started. Don't you forget it. It's crazy to overreact to those things. It's fun to talk about, but I think it's crazy to overreact. So let me know what you think about James Harden, the foul baiting, all of that. And I'll see y'all tomorrow. I have so much more to talk about that I feel like I should just film after this, but I won't. I'll see y'all tomorrow. Peace.