James Harden working to help rebuild ‘home’ of Houston

“I call Houston home. It was devastating. It was probably worse than the hurricane, because we don’t know how many people were affected.”

One day after donating hundreds of meals to Houstonians in need, former Rockets star James Harden said he’s been on the phone with plumbers to help rebuild the city after last week’s winter storm.

Harden was traded to the Brooklyn Nets in January, at his request, but he’s repeatedly shown an affinity for the city where he played eight-plus seasons and grew from a Sixth Man of the Year to an NBA MVP.

After posting 37 points and 11 rebounds in Brooklyn’s 112-108 win on Sunday over the Los Angeles Clippers, here’s what Harden said:

I’m on phone calls literally every day, all day. Trying to impact the city, because they’ve shown me so much love and respect in the time that I was there.

I call Houston home. It was devastating, obviously. It was probably worse than the hurricane [Harvey], because we don’t know how many people were affected, not having electricity, not having power. And they aren’t able to eat, or be outside, or whatever the case may be. Not only food, we’re trying to feed as many people as we can, but a lot of water. Shoutout to BodyArmor, who’s helping me with that. We’re getting a lot of water shipped in this week for people, which I’ll be posting.

And then, as far as plumbing… I’ve reached out, and I’m in contact with some plumbing companies that have been, for these last few days, taking care of seven or eight houses a night. Patching up these pipes, because once the electricity came back on, pipes started to burst. We’ve seen so many cases of that in Houston.

I’ve been in contact with Mayor [Sylvester] Turner, the Relief Gang, just so many people that I’ve known that are able to help while I’m not there. Obviously this is a huge problem, but I try to impact it and help, as much as I can, while I’m not there. And I’ll continue that. It won’t stop, because there’s so many people that have been affected. I can’t stop.

“The Beard” makes his return to Houston next Wednesday, March 3, and he’s likely to receive a deserved ovation at Toyota Center.

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