But when you see it, like when you see stuff like when you go back and you watch it, Kobe or you watch Michael Jordan, it's like you forget.

And then when you see something, it's like, Damn.

And he's just watching Harden and the Houston uniform not harden in the Dunkin Donuts Houston uniform.

But when he was different, hard for most nine games that he played this year or last year, Um, you look at him, man and his skill set.

It's just like crazy here is just crazy about How tall are you?

64?

How much you weigh?

Don't worry about all that.

No, No.

Okay, he's changed.

Okay, He's 65 to 20 so he's a little bit taller and you moving like that, That's a It's not like you see guards move like that.

You're like, Okay, cool.

Like what's Kyree?

Six to you know what's Russell 6364 Like maybe like dude, 65 man moving like that like that's a big body hitting you every single time No, it it's not even it's not.

It's just I don't know.

He just smooth with it, smooth, smooth with it.

And he just like, no matter what, you can't do anything like, uh, it's like, let me get this buckets.

So let's set the scene.

The numbers I was gonna mention.

He gave the Rockets three scoring titles.

He took him to the Western Conference finals twice.

And, of course, one big divorce.

But they're getting back together tonight.

Nets Rockets in Houston Hardens Return, ESPN, 7 30 Eastern part of a double dip.

Golden State.

Portland will follow that a win.

The Nets will go to the All Star break at 24 13 winners of 10 of their last 11.

If you're wondering James Harden here real quick in 10 seconds, getting it out pretty quick.

He just wanted to make sure people knew on the reaction he hopes to get this evening.

I hope I received a love, love and the appreciation that I've given to that city and I still give to that city.

Um, you know, I hope, hoping that the favorite can be returned.

And speaking of return, he is returning and He's returning a hero in a couple of different ways, and that's where I want to start with you.

This morning, his 13 restaurant, of course, named after his jersey has helped out.

They provided a ton of meals and some water after the Texas deep freeze.

So even though he's left, he's returned.

He's still trying to do some things in the community, but J I'll start with you here.

Tilman Fertitta, the Rockets owner, made some waves yesterday when he came out and said, Eventually, the franchise, despite all the acrimony, is going to retire James Harden's jersey probably going to happen a little bit later this season.

Timing seems interesting.

Nets on fire Tillman's Rockets have lost 12 in a row.

There was that one time when the Rockets, I think 16 in a row.

But look, they're better without James Harden like calm down.

Let's calm down for a second.

Um, I will.

I do not want fans to boo James Harden tonight.

I don't want it to happen.

Um, a lot of people say, Well, the way he forced his way out was just non professional and let's go back and let's provide a little history on how we even got to this point.

A guy who, since he's been there, key, he's taking them to the playoffs every single year, every single year, his first year, averaging 25 points per game.

I mean, we won't even get into the things he's done for the community.

But this past year, when he decided to leave, okay, the GM that made the trade for him to come from Okay, See, he all of a sudden decided to step down, quote unquote.

Which means you know what that means.

He was.

He was pushed out during morally pushed Daryl Morey pushed out your head coach, Mike D'Antoni, That created the style in which you play that you had a great bond with.

They didn't give him extension.

All of a sudden he's gone.

Russell Westbrook, all of a sudden, that relationship that festers rumors from the media, they don't get along.

But now they're moving him, and they're making all these changes without consulting James Harden, the guy that they're building the whole franchise on, right.

So now all of a sudden he wants to leave and he goes to Brooklyn, where he's part of a team with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, where they're winning.

I just He's given his franchise everything.

He could key.

I just I want him to just get the praise that he deserves when he comes back home to a city that he's always put on.

Just Tilman Fertitta and company decided to make all these changes.

And that's the way Tilman Fertitta is from.

Are saying, Hey, look, we made mistakes, but we love you, James.

That's why we're announcing that we're actually going to retire your jersey.

If they boo him, they boo him.

No, that's just a sign of respect, as far as I'm concerned.

Boom, boom, boo.

Whatever.

Whatever it is, that's just a sign of respect.

I don't think that they will, though, Um, because if you have any sense and you understand anything about professional sports, much like you just went through a timeline, J will, there's the timeline is right there.

So you you understand why he decided to leave Houston?

So you really shouldn't be mad at it because you have to put yourself in his shoes.

I know you know.

You look at him.

You think he turned down our city, our state.

He doesn't want to play for us anymore.

It's not that it's that he wants to move on from an organization.

They're quite frankly didn't figure it out.

They had an opportunity.

Where were they one game away from beating the Golden State Warriors?

They were up 31 and so every since then, it's kind of been downhill for him.

Now, as a professional athlete, you want to hit the reset button and you decide that going to Brooklyn gives you a better opportunity for that ultimate goal at the end of the day, which is to win a championship.

And come on, man, you're trying to win a chip.

You just said you're trying to win a chip.

You're gonna bring in the first year head coach when I'm trying to win a chip and I've been here.

I've been so close so many times, you're just going to give me a new GM.

Even though Rafael Stone has been in the building guy, I had no say over who was going to be involved or not.

I needed to say, Just let we talk about this with the Shawn Watson.

Just hear my voice just hear my opinion.

I'm not saying you need to listen to it factor into the equation or at least act like you're doing well.

Yeah, and even even if you look at it from the standpoint of James Harden or from the standpoint of Houston, if you our interview with certain guys, you always want sure start players to have some sort of participation.

It doesn't.

It doesn't mean that you have to have them sign off on the higher, but at least communicate with them so that they know what's going on, that they're not blindsided, Zubin Or and all of a sudden they say to themselves, When you brought this dude in the building, I may not even have a relationship with him, and you're going to try to force me to have a relationship with him when you could have simply higher Van Gundy.

Or maybe that would have helped you keep hardened.

But for whatever reason, you couldn't get that deal done and don't get it twisted.

P.

J.

Tucker does not want to be there.

He does not want to be in Houston, and it's funny.

With the Brooklyn Nets coming in town, it's uh, you think about all the best fits for P.

J.

Tucker and what team he would want to go to.

He's gonna want to look at some point.

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