James Harden Somehow Looks More Like A Blogger Than An All Time NBA Great In This High School Mixtape

If I told you the player you just watched in that video would one day become a league MVP, 6th Man Of The Year, a 3 time scoring champ, a 6x All NBA First Team member, an 8 time All Star, and one of the best shooting guards to EVER play in the NBA, there's no way you'd believe it. I mean that Harden high school mixtape looks way more like a blogger than one of the best players in the NBA. It just goes to show how much Harden worked on his game and improved if this is where he started from. You see better run in your local JCC for crying out loud. Coming out of high school Harden was ranked as the 21st best player in the ESPN 100 and the 11th best player by Rivals. I was fortunate to see him play while he was at ASU

and the jump he made from that high school tape to those early ASU years was pretty astounding. People obviously hate on Harden nowadays because of how he plays and the fact that he destroys your favorite team on a nightly basis, but his rise to the caliber of player he is today is pretty remarkable. I feel like that gets lost because everyone is so worked up about his drawing fouls and isolation play. You look at guys that are on Harden's level and they were basically monsters from the jump. You knew LeBron was going to be a force, same with guys like Durant. Harden essentially came out of nowhere. 

To think Harden went from that video to this

really makes me feel like shit. Those highlights could have been any one of us reading this blog (minus all the dunks). Make easy passes? Get your shit blocked all the time by taller players? That's all of us. Sadly though we did not turn into one of the most devastating offensive forces the league has ever seen.