Hefty interview. Check out the link for his video interview. Apparently he gets rolexes for gifts. No grills for him https://www.gq.com/story/james-harden-houston-rockets-mvp-not-playing-around Excerpts: Harden takes evident pride that his career has enabled his mother, Monja Willis, to have an NBA life of her own. Willis is one of a bumper crop of delightful NBA moms, led by Draymond Green's mom, Mary Babers-Green, and Kevin Durant's "real MVP," Wanda. They are funny, salty, ferociously protective of their sons, and living their best lives on Instagram. "My mom—she hangs out with, like, moms of other players that I don't even talk to," Harden says, amused. How does that happen? "There are mom meetings, things like that." You're joking, right? "No, I'm serious. Mom meetings. That makes me happy, 'cause they get to talk about their sons behind our backs. She deserves that." ... "I get food in this **** all the time," he says. "Like, all the time. If it's people that I don't know, I won't eat around 'em. When I'm, like, going on blind dates, I'll wait till I get around people I actually am comfortable around, because then they'll tell me I have stuff in my beard. It kinda comes with it. If you wanna look as good as I do." I actually don't process this confession about his beard until much later, because I'm so thrown by the thought of James Harden going on a blind date. Wait, you just said "going on blind dates." You don't really go on blind dates, do you? It'd only be blind for you—everybody knows what you look like. "You know what I mean." Not really. What kind of dates do you go on? "I don't know—first, second, third time hangin' out with somebody. Not random. Just a dinner or something." ... Harden says he watched it ten times after the game, which means he watched it 40. He actually ran into Johnson a couple of weeks later after a rematch, and he says they discussed their historic bond. According to Harden, "I asked him 'How's everything going?' And he told me he was still thinking about it for the next week and a half." In New Orleans, I asked if Harden knew he had licked his lips during the play. "Yeah," he says. "Dinner time." Harden chuckles but his expression hardly changes. "No, I wasn't tryna do that. It was just, I felt like my lips were kinda dry, so at the moment, I licked 'em." He says the only reason he finally shot the ball is that another Clipper, Milos Teodosic, left his man to cover Harden. "If he wouldn't have contested the shot, the ball would probably be sitting in my hand right now." ... Then last spring, after carrying the Rockets all season and facing elimination again, this time versus San Antonio, Harden finally ran out of gas, shooting just 2-for-11 and turning the ball over six times as the Rockets were humiliated by 39 points. "I don't think there's a player that's had to create as much as I've had to in these last three years," Harden says testily. "I don't know if there's a guy in NBA history." It's the kind of thing a player shouldn't have to say out loud himself, and the fact that Harden can, and does, and won't take any heat for it—even though it's kind of a slap at his teammates, many of whom are still on the team—is a testament to its plain truth. (And in Harden's defense, D'Antoni told me the same thing.) Still, fairly or not, the last thing we all saw last season—and a few times before that—was Harden breaking down. "I didn't play well," he says. "It is what it is." And for once, "it is what it is" is more than a cliché. It's a verdict. Tough ****. Life is unfair. Harden finishes the thought. "Be better," he says. More in link https://www.gq.com/story/james-harden-houston-rockets-mvp-not-playing-around
That's not what he said. Good interview, though he really needs to let the idea go that he's had to carry such a crazy load - unlike anyone before him - and that got to him in game 6 of the play-offs. That was simply folding under pressure, forgetting how to play the right way, too confident and then flabbergasted how it's not going your way etc. He's had more of those moments so he needs to hold himself accountable and just admit it. He might do that behind closed doors, or just to himself, but really: be honest with yourself, with the fans and own up to it. It's okay.
Even NPR recognizes Harden....What? They should talk about politics, less about practice! 'GQ' Says James Harden Is The NBA's Most Exciting Player It's NBA playoff season. David Greene talks to Devin Gordon, who profiled Houston Rockets point guard James Harden for GQ magazine. ... GORDON: The beard is - well, that's another example. I mean, he was told coming out of college by an agent that he should shave the beard. GREENE: Well, and if he's as counterintuitive as you say, probably like, I'm going to grow that thing forever (laughter). GORDON: That's exactly what happened. I don't think it was his agent, might have been another agent he was considering signing with, something like that, who said you shouldn't grow out that beard because you'll never get any endorsements. GREENE: Well, here he is (laughter). ... GREENE: But what about the beard? GORDON: Well, the beard - I mean, the beard thing was fascinating to me because I came in with this theory that he feels trapped by the beard. The only other time I had met him, years earlier, he had described the beard as a superpower and like, you know, that if he cut it off it would be like Sampson. ... GREENE: His mom is quite a character too, right? I mean, isn't she all over Instagram? GORDON: Yeah, she's a great NBA mom, hilarious at courtside. It's just fantastic. And it's just also, you know, there's - when you come from circumstances like where James Harden came from, which is... GREENE: Is that who he credits? I mean... GORDON: Oh, yeah. GREENE: I know when he talked to you - you wrote about how he's from Compton. He talked about being from a place that was - he described it as not safe, rough, distractions, gangs. Did that - she really raise him and inspire him? GORDON: Yeah, I mean, when I asked James to just, you know, just picture his childhood and tell me what he saw, none of the words about his childhood were - they were all bad. They were all, you know, dangerous and crime. I even said - I'm like, you know, was there anything that you're nostalgic about or anything that, you know, was a good memory of there? And he just said, my mom. That's it. GREENE: What do you think he's doing for the NBA? GORDON: He's the kind of player that epitomizes why the NBA is in such good shape. It's a league, not just a sport. It's a league that encourages fun, personality, stardom in the - all the good senses of that word. All of those things are driving toward making guys like James Harden, who work hard, who are good people, don't get in trouble, fantastically entertaining on the court.
