BEARD IS ITCHING
Harden excited to lead Nets against his old Houston team:
The Nets have one more game left before the March 5-10 NBA All-Star break, and it’s a trip down memory lane for James Harden, who will make his first trip back to Houston after forcing a trade from the Rockets to the Nets.
He put that team on his back for eight years before this season’s drama, when he abruptly and messily requested a trade at the start of this season, showed up late and out of shape to Rockets training camp before saying the situation in Houston was “crazy” and “can’t be fixed.” Houston traded him to the Nets the following day in a deal that netted them Victor Oladipo from Pacers and seven years’ worth of draft assets from the Nets.
“(My) time there was great. Obviously we came up short to win a championship or even a Finals but just the work that I put in, hopefully those fans appreciated everything that I’ve done on the court and off the court and I’m still continuing to do off the court because that’s a place that I call home,” Harden said after posting a 30-point triple double with no turnovers in a victory over the Spurs Monday night. “It’s always home and I feel like I’m still a part of everything and the struggles and everything they go through. I’m excited to go back there and see the familiar faces, see my family and play a game and the last game before the break.”
Harden said he’s excited to go back to Houston, where he morphed from Sixth Man into superstar, averaged 30 points, eight assists, six rebounds and two steals and won Most Valuable Player in 2018.
The Rockets have allowed about 4,500 fans into the Toyota Center for games this season, and it remains unclear whether those fans are excited to welcome Harden back. After years of contending for a championship but perennially falling short, the Rockets now find themselves at the bottom of the West with an 11-22 record, second-worst in the conference. Harden forced his way out of town, and took the franchise’s hopes at winning a championship — or remaining relevant — with him. Houston’s John Wall-Victor Oladipo pairing has not worked, the team waived DeMarcus Cousins, and Christian Wood — the team’s most promising young player — has been out nearly a month with an ankle injury.
Harden, meanwhile, is thriving in Brooklyn, where he’s re-entered the MVP conversation having posted his seventh triple double since the trade, the most in Nets history since Jason Kidd.
“Yeah I think the Houston game means a lot to James,” said Nets coach Steve Nash. “Very special place for him, had some unbelievable years, MVP years, and I think going back there is definitely something that is special to him and means a lot.”
Harden arrived in Brooklyn a man on a mission: to help, not captain, this talented Nets team to a championship, not to get in the way of Kevin Durant’s “God-given, seven-foot” abilities and to make life easier for Durant and Kyrie Irving. With Durant out with a hamstring injury, that mission has trickled down to the remainder of a Nets roster that jointly agrees The Beard has made life easier.
“We have to implement the phrase ‘get used to it.’ When someone’s that special, someone’s that talented and are able to do all facets of the game at a very high level they’re able to play at a very high level, and he’s been displaying that,” Irving said of Harden. “And it makes it easier for me; I’m sure other guys can echo the sentiment. When James is being James, it makes our job a lot easier. And so we’ve got to get used to somebody special like that, things like that in terms of breaking records.”
But it’s not only his work on the court that matters in Houston. Harden has maintained that Houston is home to him forever and proved that by providing meals, water and even rebuilding homes in the immediate aftermath of a mid-February snowstorm that left many of those families displaced, their homes flooded after pipes froze and burst. He partnered with a number of restaurants and chefs to donate 3,000 meals after that snowstorm, and in 2019, donated more than $240,000 to renovate outdoor basketball courts in underserved areas that were devastated by Hurricane Harvey.
“My plan is to touch as many people as I can,” Harden said. “Just trying to touch thousands and thousands of people in that city because they’ve done that for me and they showed me and my family so much love. And that’s still going on. That process is still going on as far as trying to give back to that city. So nothing but love and respect and like I said I’m excited to see some familiar faces and play a game against the Rockets.”