With the James Harden trade to the Clippers in the news, I’ve recently looked back on the first time Harden was traded in his career in 2012:
When Harden was traded to the Rockets, it was pretty clear he was a good player that would be a starting guard on almost any NBA team.
However, it became clear very quickly that his offensive ceiling was a lot higher than people expected when he dropped 37 points then 45 in his first two games as a Rocket.
I just remember the excitement of those first few games where it was apparent this guy had a level to his game that not many could have foreseen based on his time in OKC.
My earliest vivid NBA memory is watching Jordan vs Magic in the '91 Finals on a portable black-and-white TV that had something like a 5 inch screen. It ran on like 12 C batteries. I was supposed to be sleeping.
To this day, I still stay up too late watching the NBA. But my TV setup has slightly improved.