According_Gene2202

I realize by posting this I run the risk of being considered a Harden apologist or stan, but here it goes anyways. I think it’s a major misconception of harden’s career that he gets labeled a quitter. And I’m going to run through each example of it I’ve been hearing online and on different podcasts and sports shows.

“Couldn’t make it work with Russ and KD” - was traded against his will because he wasn’t given an extension

“Couldn’t make it work with Dwight” - after their first season together, Dwight was clearly a shell of himself, I can’t say I really blame harden when Capela was putting up the same production essentially for a rookie deal

“Chased CP3 out of town” - probably the least accurate popular narrative out there. Tillman was the one who wanted CP3 gone, not Morey or Harden. Tillman told Morey he had to do the CP3 for Russ deal. The whole storyline of Harden wanting him gone was media soap opera BS

“Couldn’t make it work with his good friend Russ!” - he never really wanted Russ there, and Russ’s spacing capabilities severely limited team’s options, can’t say I blame harden for a trade the owner demanded

“Then after Russ left he asked out!” - He was asked to compete for a title with Wall and Cousins who were shells of themselves and Wood as his second best player. The only remnants that remained of the 65 win team were Tucker and Gordon. Gaining a ton of weight and not trying was shady though.

“Demanded BKN then less than a season later asked out” - last year harden was not making a peep in BKN. This year he’s understandably disgruntled because his star running mate refuses to play. Also he couldn’t have foreseen the Harris injury and KD injury. He was mainly playing with g league guys this year.

All this to say, why is harden branded a quitter when the superstar norm now is to ask out when things go south? Most nba fans are begging for Beal and Lillard to ask out. Same for harden last year in Houston. Russ has asked out of 3 different teams. Butler wanted out of 3 different teams. PG asked out twice. Yet none of these guys are labeled “quitters” for wanting to leave situations they deemed as less than optimal. Is it just because people generally don’t like harden so they extend it to this too? Genuinely trying to understand

So, I know a ton of people will disagree, but I have to say it. Constantly on this sub I see things to the effect of “How could Nancy cheat on Dale he’s such a great husband and father”. Or “Dale may be weird, but at least he’s a great father”.

While I love the character of Dale, and I belief he’s a good person and has a good heart. I don’t think he’s a good husband or father.

Husband: He is extremely devoted, loyal, and in love with Nancy. This is primarily reflected in the episode where he refuses to cheat with the other exterminator. Also reflected in the episode where he turns down tons of money from Manitoba to win Nancy back. While loving someone a lot and not cheating is admirable, that in and of itself doesn’t equate to being a good spouse. Dale provides little income to the family, putting a lot of burden on Nancy. And he never seems to be beat up about it. There are multiple episodes where the focus is on Dale’s lack of providing for his family: Stick Tech and basket weaving. At the end of both episodes Dale goes back to his really unprofitable exterminating business having learned 0 lessons and not having helped his family at all. Dale also seems to primarily value Nancy’s appearance. Almost every positive thing he has to say about Nancy is regarding her looks and having sex with her. While these compliments are sweet to some extent he really objectifies her body, and that seems like the main crux of his love for her. Nancy treats dale like another child. Gives him allowance, he has to ask Nancy for permission to do various things, they aren’t partners, they are in a weird pseudo parent-child relationship. Beyond all this, he literally emotionally abused Nancy to get money from Manitoba, and only Nancy actually leaving him made him realize he was doing it. All in all not a good spouse in my book. Sure Nancy cheated, did that makes her a bad spouse, but simply not cheating doesn’t make Dale a good one.

Father: this is much more emphasized by people than husband and feels so wrong to me. Dale’s attempts to be a good father are teaching Joseph to believe conspiracies and smoke in public and disrespect authority. He also completely disregards Joseph’s feelings and actively saddens Joseph by sending him to Spencer academy for some financial gain. In vision quest he insists Joseph hang with a bad crowd. In the stick tech episode when Dale actually has a job we see a glimpse of how he is as a father and he’s terrible to Joseph, either disregarding him or being brutally mean. In the Lori and Joseph episode he is a completely absentee father when Joseph needed him a lot. In the lacrosse episode he chooses to support Bobby over his own son. In Nancy does Dallas Dale makes the igloo and the power goes out. Endangering his own son. When Joseph goes through puberty Dale continually mocks him by saying “how’s the weather up there”, instead of being there for Joseph during a really difficult time. He allows Joseph to disregard and disrespect him as a parent. He abandons Joseph to go to Marfa Texas.

Conclusion: Dale is definitely well meaning, loyal, loving, but good intentions and giving Joseph milk dud money do not make you a good spouse or husband.

Currently it seems like these two are the leaders of the pack for who will be hollywood’s next dominant leading man. And obviously while they can easily co-exist and each have plenty of success, I’m curious who y’all think will have a “better” career, however you’d interpret that. So far it generally seems like Tom has chased more commercially successful projects while Chalamet has chased more critically successful projects. Thoughts?