The main complaint I have made about Moe Harkless for the past however many years, since he came into the league basically, is that he doesn’t do enough on the court. Not only does he often play passively on offense, he LOOKS like he’s playing passively because his facial expression never changes. At most, you might get a stern look out of him if he dunks it especially hard, or a surprised look if a call doesn’t go his way.
Well, I’m looking like the dumb one now because it turns out that Harkless CAN be a player who stuffs the stat sheet, AND he can be player who shows some emotion some of the time. Showing emotion is easy when you hit a game-winner. One would hope that emotion is shown when a player like Harkless, who doesn’t have a lot of “big” moments in his career, executes on the most exciting and memorable play of his life. Even somebody like me, who feels no emotions but instead has sort of an emotionless gray fog obscuring and dulling everything that happens in life, would be hard-pressed not to react in such a situation. I would probably just crack a smile and allow myself to get mobbed by teammates.
I’m sure Blazers fans are hoping that Harkless can bring this new focus on scoring into the playoffs with him. Anything that helps replace Nurkic’s lost production is a good thing. However, if Harkless averages 6 PPG over the entire playoffs (however many games that ends up being for the Blazers), I wouldn’t be surprised at all.