[The Athletic] An oral history of James Harden’s college days at Arizona State

Nobody on clutchfans has a subscription to the athletic.

 

another quality link to the Athletic

 

can someone post the article?

 

I love the themes and theoretically all of the "The Athletic" content, too bad I don't have a subscription, but they must be great reads.

 

James lived on the first floor in the same dormitory I lived in during my freshman year of college. He would regularly come to parties I was at and needless to say he had a lot of fun. He was very introverted anywhere he'd go but was always friendly. I'm excited to read this.

 

IKR!! LOL

Rocket River

 

here’s a snippet for u non-subscribers

Jeff Ayres (formerly Jeff Pendergraph, forward): We were struggling that first year with Coach Sendek, and (point guard Derek Glasser) kept telling me, “Don’t worry about it, man. Next year, we’re going to be OK.” I was like, “What are you talking about? We suck right now.” He said, “We got James.”

Antwi Atuahene (forward): He played with us over the summer. I saw he had a very high IQ, but he was very soft. He didn’t like much contact, so in our pickup games, a lot of older guys like Ike Diogu, Amar’e Stoudemire and other pros like Alex Scales would play, and I would always sic the older guys on James to beat up on him a little.

Ike Diogu (former Arizona State standout, NBA veteran): I had heard all the hype about how he was the highest ASU recruit ever. This one day I didn’t go to the gym, but my high school coach who was training me over the summer went. When he came back, first thing he said was, “Man, that kid Harden, he’s a future pro.”

Ty Abbott (guard): He was obviously left-hand dominant, but he was very confident. You could tell that for his size, he was a different type of guard, one I hadn’t seen. He was just so big and strong.

Herb Sendek (coach): People may not realize that he was a year young (only 17) when he came to college, so he was still a really young player, just in the beginning stages of his development.

At first, the ASU staff had to urge Harden to be aggressive, but it didn’t take long for the 6-foot-5, 218-pound guard to show dominance. In the Maui Invitational, he scored 22 points against Princeton, and he had 23 points in an overtime win against LSU.

Ayres: I turned into a believer really quick.

Kraidon Woods (forward): If you ever guard a lefty, it’s like playing somebody backwards, because a lot of people’s tendencies are to go right and he’s going left all the time.

Rihards Kuksiks (forward): Everybody knew he was going left — and he still went left. I thought, “He’s so good left, once he picks up going right, nobody is going to stop him.”

Atuahene: His breakout game was against the University of Arizona. That’s the game he kind of broke out of his shell.

Woods: I can’t remember an exact moment when James became James, but I definitely remember that one as being up there.

Dedrique Taylor (assistant coach): Late in the game, we got him the ball right in front of our bench on the right side of the floor. Arizona has a senior, Jawann McClellan, guarding him. I could hear James telling (McClellan) that he’s going left, and the dude was so high on the left side. I mean, he was damn near half court, that’s how high he was trying to keep him off his left hand. James juked him like he was going right, then went left and got an and-1.

Jawann McClellan (Arizona guard): I was just sitting on his left hand. And somehow he gives you this herky-jerk and you jump to the right. Next thing you know, he’s taking you for a ride with his left hand.

Scott Pera (assistant coach): That was definitely his “I’m here to dominate” moment.

Was he a trash-talker?

Steve Jones (guard): He had different modes. He was never like Gary Payton with it, but he’d get really quiet, and that meant, “OK, I’m ready to go at you.”

Lamont Smith (assistant coach): James wasn’t a trash-talker, but you weren’t going to talk trash to James, if that makes sense.

Ayres: The game I remember is UCLA at UCLA. What’s that guy’s name? The guy who played Steve Urkel in “Family Matters”? Jaleel White!

Woods: Yeah, Urkel always sat courtside at Pauley.

Ayres: He and James are just going at it. I’m playing good, like 8-for-8 from the field. James is turning up — it was like a Reggie Miller-Spike Lee type of thing.

Jaleel White (actor): Nah, it was a friendlier version of that. During a free throw, James was like, “Hey, how do you want me to give it to y’all? Do you want it inside or out?” And I was like, “This dude’s feeling real good. All right, you got it like that. Go ahead and give me a 3.” Play commences. The very next play, he shoots a 3. Drills it. Looks right at me. I’m like, “Oh, ****. OK.” Next dead ball, same thing. He’s like, “You want that again?” I was like, “Nooo. I don’t want the same thing twice! Give me something different. Go to the hole.” He’s like, “OK, cool.” And the very next play, just quick step. Boom! … That day, he made me a fan.

Off the court, Harden was just as competitive, but he also liked to have fun.

Atuahene: He’s the most introverted extrovert you’ll meet in your life, meaning he’s introverted when he wants to be, but when he steps out of his box, he’s extroverted.

Jamelle McMillan (guard, now an assistant coach with the New Orleans Pelicans): When he’s in the element of basketball, he’s: “Let’s get something out of this. Let’s get something accomplished.” Then, as soon as you leave the gym, he’s the biggest class clown ever.

Woods: He was a goofball, for sure.

McMillan: He loved giving people nicknames. That was his thing.

Atuahene: Actually, that was me. I came up with nicknames and handshakes for everybody. Jamelle was Platterhead because he looked like a Platterhead. Steve Jones was Pork Chop. James was James Hardly, which was short for James Hardly Go Right because he never went right.

Ayres: He’d fall asleep in film with Herb, and for me, I didn’t like that. I was like a square. “Who is this young guy, thinking he can just come in here and fall asleep during film when we’re talking about him always going for steals, not playing no damn defense?” But whenever we needed a laugh or I needed to calm down, he’d say something stupid and we’d both laugh.

Christian Polk (guard): We enjoyed ourselves, for sure. I’m from (the Phoenix area) … and there’s a lot of resources to have a good time. And James really saw what was going on his senior year in high school. Once they all got here, the show was already going, and we just kind of turned James up another notch.

Then there was the video game “Halo.”

McMillan: “Halo” was serious business for James.

Polk: To this day, if a kid came up to James and said, “I’ll beat you in ‘Halo,’” James would drop what he’s doing and say, “Man, what do you want to do?”

Abbott: We would play hours upon hours.

Polk: The way James played, it was almost like boxing. If you made a mistake, he was going to punish you. There’s this one spot in “Halo” that if you move a certain way, James was going to snipe you every single time. If you run through a certain hallway, he was going to throw a bomb off the wall.

Nico Fricchione (guard): We had a console in the locker room, and everyone would be in there playing. This one time, Coach Sendek got so upset, he came in and literally ripped the system out.

Atuahene: This is what happened: They put the timer on the clock before practice. We had like 15 minutes, but James lost another game. We were supposed to go to the court, but they all said, “One more.” I already knew I was on the hot seat with Coach Sendek, so I went to practice. Coach Sendek said, “Where’s all the guys?” I said, “I guess they’re still in the locker room.” He goes upstairs and sees everybody playing “Halo” and just yanks the (Xbox) console out.

Polk: I don’t think he broke it.

Atuahene: He definitely broke it.

Sendek: That does not ring a bell, but I’m older than those guys. Maybe my memory isn’t as good.

Atuahene: If James can’t do something well, he’s not going to do it. Like, he would never play table tennis because he sucks at pingpong. He doesn’t want to lose.

 

excellent article, thanks for posting Deuce...very enjoyable read

 

Another thread on Harden and strippers?

 

Hottest chiccs at Arizona state. U a lucky man harden

 

Hey man those UofA girls were pretty nice themselves. That whole state is wonderful.

 

Steve Urkel is a fan of James Harden big facts.

In the interview, White explains how he and the younger Harden got into some trash-talking during that game.

During a free throw, James was like, ‘Hey, how do you want me to give it to y’all? Do you want it inside or out?’ And I was like, ‘This dude’s feeling real good. All right, you got it like that. Go ahead and give me a 3.’ Play commences. The very next play, he shoots a 3. Drills it. Looks right at me.

Next dead ball, same thing. He’s like, ‘You want that again?’ I was like, ‘Nooo. I don’t want the same thing twice! Give me something different. Go to the hole.’ He’s like, ‘OK, cool.’ And the very next play, just quick step. Boom! … That day, he made me a fan.
​

At the story’s conclusion, White then lobbed some new trash talk to Harden, the NBA’s current scoring leader at 38.9 points per game.

I do wish [he] would play some defense. I think that’s the only thing that’s keeping him away from a championship, because literally — and please quote me on this — that man is an offensive savant.
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