In his first return visit after forcing a trade to Brooklyn, former Houston star James Harden received a touching tribute video last March and plenty of cheers from scattered Rockets fans in attendance at Toyota Center. For an All-Star and perennial MVP finalist who played eight-plus great seasons with the franchise, the love certainly felt appropriate.
Harden also, however, received some boos from the socially distanced fans — likely a product of the messy exit as he leveraged his way out of town, as well as the diminished on-court product left in his wake.
Now, Harden returns with the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday night for his first homecoming with Toyota Center at full fan capacity. With the Rockets suddenly on a historic winning streak, will the reception for “The Beard” be more positive? Second-year forward Jae’Sean Tate, who played briefly with Harden last season, seems to think it could be.
In comments at Tuesday’s practice in Houston, Tate said:
The people of Houston, they have so much love for him and his time here. Being able to share the court last year and learn from him, he’s just a great dude. Any time he comes back here, I think the city and everybody is going to show love for him. It’s going to be a fun one.
He’s done so much for this city. I’m sure it’s going to be a packed house. The atmosphere is going to be a great one, and I’m excited for it.
Tate is likely to be the initial defender on Kevin Durant, while veteran guard Eric Gordon will likely draw the Harden assignment. In four full seasons together in Houston from 2016-17 through 2019-20, Harden and Gordon led the Rockets to at least one playoff series win in each season — which no other Western Conference team did over that span.
“The dude’s a great player, a hell of a player,” Gordon said. “The dude’s one of the best playmakers and scorers we’ve seen. We accomplished a lot. Of course, we wished we could have won (a title) while he was here. Things are different now. We’ve got to go out and compete.”
In time, the good of Harden’s era will likely outweigh the bad. Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta has already pledged to retire Harden’s number to the rafters, once his NBA playing days are done, and Harden continues to make off-court efforts to give back to the Houston community.
But for now, with his messy departure still less than a year old, it shouldn’t come as a surprise if some in the packed crowd at Toyota Center still have hard feelings. Whatever the case, as far as the Rockets (7-16) are concerned, the bigger priority is somehow finding a way — despite having their planned starting backcourt of Kevin Porter Jr. and Jalen Green both out injured — to extend their improbable winning streak with a win over Harden and the Nets (16-7). Tipoff is set for 7:00 p.m. Central.
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