James Harden fully weaponizes the crossover
In last year’s Logan, Boyd Holbrook’s villain mentions to our favourite Canuck mutant that Charles Xavier’s brain has been classified as a weapon of mass destruction due to shadowy reference to an event that precedes the film. And in a brutal, violent sequence in Las Vegas we get to see that weapon in full force. People are rendered as statues, their brains being fried, the whole world seems to want to break out into multiple transparent versions of itself. Logan and the young Laura are the only ones able to withstand it. It’s devastating, hypnotic, paralysing, almost impossible to guard against, and leaves a path of destruction that I only imagine is felt weeks afterward.
The NBA equivalent of that was James Hardens crossover against Wesley Johnson that seemed to warp space and time and leave everyone in a state of blissful shock (apart from those poor Clippers fans). Harden was Professor X, the Staples Center was Las Vegas, and Johnson was everyone in it. There was no Wolverine to stop it this time.
Lebron dreams about having those moves, SB Nation gave us a disrespect ranking index a few hours later, and I’m sure Johnson is still trying to figure out how to get his equilibrium back. Everything about it is downright filthy and insulting. From Harden’s first step back (followed by an equally disdainful second step back), to Johnson’s almost balletic tumble. The ‘you have no power here’ stare down that Harden invokes upon Johnson, the lord-like pause he takes, as if considering whether to let his vanquished challenger regather some semblance of dignity by getting back to his feet, or the fact that when he finally took his shot there was absolutely no doubt that it was going to be nothing but net (and the bench suitably blew up).
Just watch it again, and again. And a dozen or so more times for good measure.
