Houston Rockets star James Harden is one of the best passers in the league, and teammate Gerald Green has taken full notice of that since arriving in Houston last season:
“The passes through the legs, behind-the-back passes through the legs, no-looks through tight seams — those are tough passes to make,” said Green, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com. “He's doing that every game.”
Green noted that while Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant were fine passers in their own right, Harden is on another level:
“It's amazing, because most guys that have the ability to score that great, I don't remember them being that great of a passer,” added Green. “Don't get me wrong, Kobe was good passer, Jordan was a good passer. But James is just on a whole nother level passing. Besides LeBron, I don't really know any [all-time great scorers] who can pass it like that.”
I would say that former Boston Celtics superstar Larry Bird would beg to differ, but I see what Green is saying.
While Harden is the best scorer we have in the game today, he is also one of the top facilitators, as evidenced by the fact that he is averaging 7.9 assists per game on the season to go along with his league-leading scoring average of 36.5 points a night.
What Harden is doing this season is truly remarkable.
He has now scored 30 or more points in 28 consecutive games, pouring in 16 40-point efforts and four 50-point outing over that span, including a 61-point outburst in a win over the New York Knicks on Jan. 23.