James Harden embraces rise to superstar with Rockets

• At his first Rockets practice%2C Harden%27s work ethic got his new teammates%27 attention
• With NBA All-Star weekend in Houston%2C Harden wants to sell other stars on possibly joining his team
• With an expanded role%2C Harden%27s scoring is up%2C his assists are up -- and so is Houston%27s win total

HOUSTON — The unofficial host of the NBA's All-Star weekend in Houston isn't Mayor Annise Parker, league Commissioner David Stern, or even that zany Rockets mascot and Care Bear look-a-like named Clutch.

It's the 23-year-old from Los Angeles with a lumberjack beard and a nasty Euro-step who has been in town for four months — Rockets All-Star shooting guard James Harden. And what a four months it has been.

In the city where Yao Ming's retirement in the summer of 2011 seemed to put basketball on the back burner again, Harden — who was traded from the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Rockets on Oct. 28 and three days later signed a five-year, $80 million maximum contract offer — has revived hope since the day he arrived. He'll be one of seven first-time All-Stars in Sunday's game, but he's much more than that to a team that looks primed to rise.

He's their everything.

"The moves that are very hard to pull off and rarely come available are getting All-Star caliber guys," Rockets general manager Daryl Morey told USA TODAY Sports. "To get James in the prime of his career — not even the prime, but at a stage where he's still improving — and have an All-Star at 23, it really meant everything to our plan."

The role of franchise centerpiece is lucrative, but not an easy one to bear. In the case of Harden, it was the sort of promotion that doesn't often happen. The NBA's reigning Sixth Man of the Year, who spent his first three seasons playing in the shadows of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, Harden was often described as the next coming of super sub Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs.

Could this old-school talent, this playmaking, shot-taking, runaway train of a scorer make the jump from third option to top dog? Was he worthy of the contract given to him by a Rockets organization that — as evidenced by its unsuccessful pursuit of Dwight Howard before he was traded from the Orlando Magic to the Los Angeles Lakers — badly needed a new star?

Even Harden acknowledges he wasn't entirely sure, if only because he'd never had a team on his back before. After his wildly entertaining first half of the season that some say merits MVP consideration, that question has been answered.

To land Harden, the Rockets gave up a lot: veteran shooting guard Kevin Martin, rookie shooting guard Jeremy Lamb, two first-round picks and a second-round pick.

Here is what Houston got, in the view of Portland Trail Blazers small forward Nicolas Batum: "He may be the best shooting guard in the league right now. ... This year he's been incredible, played great."

Said Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, who was widely considered an All-Star snub: "James has embraced the superstar role on that team and (shown) why he was such a catalyst for OKC to do what they did. He can penetrate. He can pass. He can shoot. He gets to the line. He is showing his full repertoire."

Not only has Harden's play put the Rockets (29-26) back in the playoff hunt after a three-season drought, he has quickly become one of the league's elite in a most counterintuitive way. Despite the heavier load, more pressure and increased defensive attention from opponents, Harden is even better than before.

Harden is fifth in the league in scoring at 26.1 points a game, a significant increase from last season's average of 16.8 points.

It's due, in part, to an increase in shot attempts, 17.3 a game as opposed to 10.1 last season, as well as his league-leading ability to get to the free throw line (10 attempts and 8.6 makes a game). But even more impressive is that his playmaking abilities have not suffered — Harden is averaging 5.7 assists a game this season, up from 3.7 last season.

And it's all just in time for the NBA's big gala to come to his town.

"I think that made it more special," Harden said in a recent interview with USA TODAY Sports. "With me not even thinking about leaving Oklahoma City, and then getting traded to Houston, and then it's my first All-Star weekend in the same year. It's all come together so well, and made it more special."

Harden's ascension to All-Star is, in essence, validation of the Rockets' plan and a welcoming party for a still-rising player to the league's most elite club.

"He's made superstar status," Miami Heat star LeBron James, a fellow All-Star and reigning MVP, told reporters recently. "He's worthy of the max contract he received from that team, and he can do a little bit of everything."

'Old-school strong'

Rockets coach Kevin McHale, who earned seven All-Star nods and three championships during his days with the Boston Celtics, sees Harden as a timeless talent.

"James is a little bit more of an old-school type perimeter guy, a big strong guy who would've been able to play when there was hand-checking and all the holding and grabbing," he said. "He's just strong, just old-school strong — a big 6-4, 6-5, 220-pound guy who can throw his body around."

None of it would be possible if Harden weren't comfortable with his newfound status. But before Harden could get used to taking over a new team, he had to reconcile that he'd left the old one.

Harden planned to stay with the Thunder, but he wasn't about to accept the sort of contract typically given to valuable reserves. When Harden and agent Rob Pelinka kept pushing for a maximum deal with the Thunder, they ultimately opted to trade him in large part because of the luxury tax hit that would have come with keeping him.

Harden — who was close to Durant and has been friends with Westbrook, a fellow Los Angeles native, since he was 10 years old — had grown up with the Thunder. They were a combined 43-121 in the two seasons before his arrival, but the Thunder's playoff progression began when Harden arrived: a first-round battle and six-game bow-out to the Lakers his rookie year; a loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference finals his sophomore campaign; and the five-game Finals loss to the Heat in June.

He was part of the NBA's most impressive small-market story in some time, with wunderkind general manager Sam Presti building a contender through smart drafting and scouting in an effort to offset the challenging economics that small-market teams face. Harden was part of that plan, but hefty contracts given to Durant, Westbrook and forward Serge Ibaka made Harden the odd man out if he would not accept less money.

"I felt kind of hurt and disappointed leaving those guys, leaving something special, especially being around Kevin and Russell all summer after (the) Finals (with the Olympic gold medal-winning Team USA)," Harden says. "Probably a month after the trade, I started getting used to it and started figuring it out that this is my team now, and this is what I have to do. I have to be a leader now. I have a new role."

The transformation from super sub to superstar wasn't gradual. Never mind that the trade had left him stunned, or that he knew none of his new teammates beyond the usual in-game pleasantries. Harden decided before his first Rockets practice that this was his team, and he didn't leave any doubt.

"That first day was sort of eye-opening to some of us, because he literally just started screaming at people to tuck their shirts in," Rockets small forward Chandler Parsons said. "I'm sure some people were like, 'This guy has been here for an hour and he's already talking,' but ... he knew coming into this that we were a young team that needed that."

The Thunder had built a culture of professionalism and polish, and Harden's new teammates would quickly learn these new ways.

Said assistant coach Kelvin Sampson: "He was our leader — right off the bat."

But an authoritarian style doesn't always work in professional sports. It's a put-up-or-shut-up existence, and Harden would soon have to lower his volume if he didn't show what the hype was about.

Starting on Halloween, he did.

In his Rockets debut, Harden scored 37 points on 14-of-25 shooting in a win at the Detroit Pistons, followed by a career-high 45 points in another win at the Atlanta Hawks two nights later. The Rockets, whose willingness to pay a steep price for a player such as Harden had drawn plenty of criticism within the league, clearly had found their man.

As is usually the case, NBA defenses adjusted. In the next nine games, Harden shot just 36.6% (55-of-150 overall), averaged an inefficient 20.5 points per game, and suffered through seven losses. The early stretch included a pair of three-game losing streaks, something that had happened once a season his last two years in Oklahoma City.

Building chemistry

And so began the next part of Harden's transition: the reaction to losing, and the trust chapter.

"All of a sudden you could tell that teams were guarding him different," Sampson says. "But then he started trusting his teammates. He has figured out (that) Chandler Parsons is pretty good. Jeremy Lin can do more than just put the ball on the floor. ... Patrick Patterson can make plays."

Harden's relationship with Lin has evolved nicely, which is key considering the Rockets invested $25.1 million over three years to sign the former New York Knicks dynamo last summer. The two players didn't know each other, and Harden made it a point to ignore the Linsanity hype and focus on him as a human.

"I don't judge people if I haven't met them or been around them," Harden says. "He's just chill; he's just like me. Obviously we love basketball, and we love to have fun and enjoy ourselves. We're real humble, and we're just chill."

"When I got drafted to Oklahoma City, we were all young. We hung out, we went to the movies, just did stuff together. It's a similar situation as far as hanging out off the court a lot. That's what makes it more comfortable. That's why we're playing so well, because that chemistry is building so fast."

Lin, who is averaging 12.6 points, 6.1 assists and 1.9 steals a game, has enjoyed Harden, too.

"We started off really unsure," Lin says. "We didn't know much about each other's games, but we're starting to grow more now and it's starting to become easier. We're jelling and we're kind of clicking off each other. ... It's been great for us. ... He's a really good person."

And, as the Rockets had hoped, the perfect player to build around.

Harden will play his part as host this weekend, selling his fellow NBA All-Stars on the merits of playing in Houston. Morey said the Rockets are not likely to do another blockbuster deal, so he hopes Harden's recruiting will help this summer when the team has enough salary-cap space to sign another maximum-contract player.

As Harden has seen in four spectacular months, that time will be here before he knows it.

"It's all happened so fast, but I'm just humble about it and trying to stay on path and just focus on what I can do and what's got me here," Harden said. "That's my legacy, having my own organization and starting basically from scratch and going from not making the playoffs for a few years to making the playoffs and going from there; just getting better. ... I'm on the right path."