James Harden, Houston Rockets
Generally speaking, when the current generation of players gets the scorn of the older era, it’s either LeBron James or the Warriors. It makes sense to go after the biggest and best stars.
But fair or not, the primary criticisms of the era are that the players are too soft and they don’t play enough defense. Harden is really the embodiment of that.
To be fair, we don’t know if Harden is actually soft. But he flops around so much that he’s certainly willing to let people think it.
As far as the defense goes, there are times when it seems like he’s actively avoiding it. As if it would actually take less effort to really play defense.
Throw in his past relationship with the Kardashians and Harden is certainly a player who can be annoying from time to time.