Daily News | A star is born: How James Harden morphed from ‘nothing special’ to a generational talent
LOS ANGELES — When James Harden walked into the Artesia High School gym the summer of 2003, then-coach Scott Pera said the freshman-to-be was “nothing special.”
“When you’re as close to it as I was during all that development time,” Pera said, “you just never think — at least I didn’t — that he’s going to end up as one of the greatest players of all time. It’s just not something that ever entered my mind — ever.‘You can explode here’ “When we got back and league play started, he went nuts,” Pera said. “He started scoring 30s and 40s, and then he kind of saw, ‘OK, I can dominate the game. My coaches and my teammates won’t think I’m being selfish.’ It’s just an interesting look into him, his personality and who he was.”
Harden committed in early August and arrived on campus as a 17-year-old freshman in 2007 — and the most high-profile recruit in school history. In early workouts, he again preferred to pass instead of shoot so the Sun Devils would “know what kind of teammate I’m going to be,” Pera recalled. By the end of the season, the Pac-10′s youngest player was an all-conference first-teamer alongside future first-round draft picks Love, Brook Lopez, O.J. Mayo and Ryan Anderson.
“To watch it all unfold … was just magical,” Pera said. “What are the chances that he was the star player in the city where I’m the head coach at one of the schools? … I really tried to take the time to appreciate it, because I knew it wouldn’t last forever. I knew how lucky I was that he was right there.”
“After that, it’s been an ongoing joke,” Atuahene said. “Every time we’d see that guy, we’d laugh with him about it. … James was that type of guy. He loved to shine, but he also wanted to see you shine.”‘Positive vibrations’ — and a new puppy — help Tobias Harris rediscover rhythm with new-look Sixers
Atuahene was also part of Harden’s time with the Rockets, helping spearhead his charity work through fundraising events and internship and college-scholarship programs. He remembers the workout when Harden proclaimed he would win MVP, or that time he predicted his 60-point triple-double against the Orlando Magic in 2018 “like it was regular.”
Yet as high school teammates, Howell observed how serious Harden was about sharpening his jumper and his finishing during extra early morning and post-practice workouts. When Arizona’s Lute Olson and Washington’s Lorenzo Romar began showing up courtside, “You kind of knew something was brewing around here.”
“It was very, very surreal to him to have so much impact on the organization,” Howell said. “His confidence,confidence, gave everyone a sense of, ‘OK, this is how things are supposed to be.’ It kind of elevated him and kept him motivated. He didn’t stop working.”Former Arizona State associate head coach Dedrique Taylor can recall every detail of the sequence in front of his team’s bench that propelled Harden to stardom.
That captured the newfound confidence brewing inside a teenage Harden that Taylor viewed as somehow humble and plain, yet dynamic and gravitational.
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