Houston Rockets: Recap of James Harden’s Off Season

Houston Rockets superstar James Harden would tell you that along with becoming one of the best basketball players on the planet comes a busy schedule. Harden has spent countless hours trapped in the gym in order to perfect his craft.

Once you make a name for yourself among the league’s best, however, it’s more than just basketball that demands your attention.

After having a historically bad game against the Golden State Warriors in game five of the Western Conference finals, Harden decided to take a much needed break from the sport.”Rest was the key for me,” Harden told bleacher report. “Just coming off a long season and preparing myself for another long season.”

But @jharden13 got the last laugh with the game winner over @swaggyp1 then pointed @easymoneysniper telling him he know what time it is. Crrrraaaaazzzyyy game

A video posted by eRnNy (@ernny_the_man) on Aug 9, 2015 at 5:28pm PDT

Having carried an injured Rockets roster all the way to the Western Conference finals, Harden focused more on rest than he did on basketball during the off season.

That being said, he still managed to find some time to play ball, leading his Drew League team, LAUNFD, to the league’s championship where he defeated Nick Young’s M.H.P. with the above go ahead three.

It was Harden’s actions off the court that garnered him the most attention, however. After previously being with Nike, Harden signed a monster shoe deal worth a combined $200 million over the course of 13 years.

With everyone complaining about Harden still wearing Nikes after singing his deal with adidas, on the first of October (the day his deal with adidas officially began) adidas showed up with a truckload of shoes at Harden’s house.

adidas welcomes @JHarden13 by delivering a ton of sneakers to his house: http://t.co/HiyVvezSG5 pic.twitter.com/pdZvYvQDHQ

— Complex (@ComplexMag) October 1, 2015

While it must be nice to be paid $200 million to be the face of adidas, what was perhaps more important to Harden was being awarded the Most Valuable Player at the first ever NBA Players’ Awards.

Congrats to @JHarden13 who was voted MVP by his peers at the #PlayersAwardsBET! pic.twitter.com/Ps2WGTrxHz

— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) July 22, 2015

After losing out in the NBA’s official MVP race to Golden State’s Steph Curry, Harden told the players in his acceptance speech, “To my peers, I appreciate this vote. It means a lot.”

Although Harden was pleased with his player’s MVP award, it was his love life that made most of the headlines this summer. Spending a lot of time with reality TV star Khloe Kardashian, the two celebrities started popping up everywhere together. Khloe was even spotted court side at one of Harden’s preseason games.

Khloe Kardashian just showed up for Mavs-Rockets. http://t.co/z7nYBtgwUd pic.twitter.com/4bgjmXwPXx

— Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) October 8, 2015

Most notable of the couple’s outings, however, was the birthday party Khloe threw for Harden where the superstar was seen being playful with Hip Hop Icon Kanye West.

https://instagram.com/p/63SXdAuS3K/?taken-by=kimkardashian

As of recent, though, Harden and Khloe have reportedly broke things off in order for Khloe to focus on her husband (they were in the process of getting a divorce) Lamar Odom who is recovering from a drug overdose.

While Harden claimed he was fine with Khloe being there for Odom during his recovery, one wonders how Harden feels after Khloe decided to break things off. From a recent instagram post, he seems to be doing just fine.

https://instagram.com/p/9HNehrNlTl/?taken-by=jharden13

For Rocket’s fans, it’s good news to hear that James is doing well, seeing as the Rockets first game is this Wednesday against the Denver Nuggets. Harden has had a busy offseason, but if all goes to plan, it won’t be near as busy as the upcoming NBA season in which he hopes to solidify himself once more as one of the league’s best players, and help the Rockets compete for an NBA championship.

As we close in on opening day of the 2015-16 regular season make sure you catch up on our Player Profile Series and our Round Table Sessions prepping you for the October 28th tip-off and as always stay with Space City Scoop for all things Houston Rockets.

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