James Harden is trying a lot of new things this season. “Point guard” and “writer” are at the top of that list, but the potential NBA MVP hasn’t forgotten the little people that have helped him get there.
Harden followed teammate Trevor Ariza in penning a Players Tribune article during the Houston Rockets‘ playoff race. But while Ariza wrote about Harden’s case for NBA MVP and called him “Bearded Picasso,” Harden returned the favor by writing about how much his teammates mean to him.
I really could go on forever about my teammates, and about this city. Houston has showed me love from Day One. It’s meant everything to me. I grew up as a player here.
When I first arrived, I had a list in my head of all the things I wanted to achieve on a personal level. You know, things that any young player thinks about. I wanted to prove what I could do. Nothing wrong with that stuff. But now it’s just different.
Now it’s: What does this team need to do to win?
Some players specifically mentioned include Patrick Beverly, who Harden says has “that dog in him.”
“We all have that one person in our lives who just has your back unconditionally,” Harden wrote. “The basketball team version of that person for us is Pat.”
Harden pointed out the hard screen by Oklahoma City’s Steven Adams that sent Beverly sprawling in Game One of their first round series. Beverly bounced right back up and got the bench motivated, which Harden said was a huge swing in Houston’s favor.
He also looked back on his official move to point guard for Houston, recalling the first conversation he had with new Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni when he was hired over the summer.
After the call, the thing that stuck in my head was the way he’d said it, not even what he’d said.
“We need you to be point guard.”
Need.
Not want. Not would like.
Need.
He does a lot of Bill Plaschke one-sentence paragraphs in the piece, but he’s new to this thing so we’ll forgive him. Harden says he studied a lot of film with D’Antoni, including of Steve Nash on the coach’s “Seven Seconds or Less” Phoenix Suns teams. The lesson there, though, was not to mimic Nash’s style but to understand that sometimes a point guard must sacrifice for the greater good of the team. It’s a mantra that Harden has embraced this season while still putting up impressive numbers.
More importantly, it’s given Houston a legitimate chance to match some of the best teams in the NBA playoffs. Whether or not that gets Harden MVP or an NBA title this postseason, he’s certainly doing a good PR job for himself between rounds.
