Giannis Antetokounmpo Takes Yet Another Shot At James Harden Following All-Star Game, Calls Out His Defensive Ability

Getty Image / Lampson Yip - Clicks Images

Giannis Antetokounmpo has made it pretty clear about what he thinks of James Harden’s game.

When LeBron James and Antetokounmpo were selecting their teams for the All-Star Game, the Greek Freak had a chance to pick Harden, but ultimately took Kemba Walker referencing that he “wanted somebody that’s going to pass the ball.”

While Harden does lead the league in scoring, he also leads the league in field goal attempts per game, so Antetokounmpo did have a case there.

That was just the first of two shots Antetokounmpo ultimately took at Harden during the All-Star festivities.

Following his team’s loss in the game on Sunday, Antetokounmpo was asked what his team’s offensive strategy was in the fourth quarter. It was pretty simple, really, Antetokounmpo said “offensively, we were just trying to find whoever James Harden was guarding. That’s who we thought we had an opportunity to score on.”

Harden’s defense has been receiving high praise this season and has ultimately improved over the past few seasons, but he’s still a target on the court when you’re talking about the game’s best players taking him on and switches constantly happening in a not so high-level defensive game.

You kind of have to applaud Antetokounmpo for being honest with the media and telling it like it is. He could have easily said ‘oh, we were just trying to score, it was lighthearted out there’ but instead he said Harden was the player they were going after.

Harden and Team Lebron ultimately won Sunday’s game 157-155 after Anthony Davis sunk the game-winning free throw. Harden finished the game with 11 points on 3-for-9 shooting while Antetokounmpo managed 25 points going 12-for-21 from the field.