From calming his team down up 1 with 1 second left... to making everyone around him better. This quote from the Houston Chron gave me shivers. This is what he have been waiting for. This is what we have hoped and wanted out of our Superstar. PORTLAND, Ore. - While James Harden has been on a scoring roll, Rockets center Clint Capela has similarly surged on the boards. Those results are not unrelated. Harden has scored 40 points in five consecutive games. Capela, who has averaged 16.5 rebounds in that stretch, said Harden's run has inspired his own. "To me, it gives you such much more energy when I see my teammate every single day next to me with that much effort, every single night, go that hard," Capela, who had 21 rebounds on Thursday for his third 20-20 game of the season, said. "I'm like, 'OK, I got to do it, too.' He's so special. To me, I feel like, because of him I got to the next level, too. To see a guy like that every day go that hard gives me so much energy. Incredible. Leading by example. To think OKC didn't want to pay him $4 million more per season. We are forever in debt to OKC and Presti. Goodnight guys.
Harden has always been more mature than people give him credit for. You can tell even just watching his post-game interviews how well he has it together. He'll complain about calls sometimes like any star, but relatively little. He doesn't lose his cool on the court very often at all from either dirty plays or from obviously blown calls. I always thought it was BS when people were talking about how the Rockets needed Paul's leadership last year... I love Paul and what he brings (when he's healthy ), but Harden IS a mature leader on the floor. And yeah, it was pretty cool watching him chill his teammates out after that 3.
I forgot another great example of Harden's leadership: When he sat on the bench during our game 6 comeback against LAC and cheered on his teammates rather than pouting like many diva superstars would....
