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Houston Rockets: Beginning Of The End For James Harden And Dwight Howard

By Mauricio Putz

Jan 14, 2015; Orlando, FL, USA; Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard (12) and guard James Harden (13) talk against the Orlando Magic during the second quarter at Amway Center. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 14, 2015; Orlando, FL, USA; Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard (12) and guard James Harden (13) talk against the Orlando Magic during the second quarter at Amway Center. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /
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Bear with me for a second. I don’t know about you but when I was a kid, sneakers did get in the way of friendship — many times. Throughout my short-lived basketball career as a high-schooler, I made a huge effort to always have the cleanest (literally, with no dirt on them, at all) sneakers on the court and/or the school-yard, and when someone stepped on them, trouble ensued.

I haven’t talked to some of those guys ever since.

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Let’s take a trip down memory lane. Back in 2014, Phoenix Suns‘ shooting guard Eric Bledsoe was due a contract extension from his team. And in true leader fashion, former NBA MVP and unofficial player rights vigilante LeBron James intervened to made sure he got the biggest deal available.

After the King’s divine intervention, Bledsoe’s 17 points and 5.5 assists per game (knee trouble included) landed him an immensely lucrative five-year, $70 million contract with the now-rebuilding Suns. You could say LeBron leveraged — through his and Bledsoe’s agent, Rich Paul —  to take care of his younger/far inferior peer.

And now we’re here.

During the offseason, after whiffing on Kevin Durant a little more than a year ago, adidas gave James Harden — one of the league’s most marketable stars, probably — 200 million reasons why he should leave the brand that just won the NBA’s $1 billion contract to make its uniforms for the next eight-years, Nike.

Of course, as anyone would should, James Harden quickly took the deal and is now poised to become adidas’ marquee client in the NBA.

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Now, did he (James Harden) do for Dwight Howard the same sort of push LeBron did for Eric Bledsoe? Well, I’m not sure. However, with his sudden adidas departure to join Chinese sporting goods company Peak, I guess he didn’t.

When you think of Dwight Howard — unlike say, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Michael Jordan, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, and Kyrie Irving — you don’t immediately think about which shoe he’s wearing.

And even though it seems as if he doesn’t have the starpower, nor flair, to have a signature shoe developed by any brand, for some reason some of them still think that he does.

According to Kicks on Fire, Dwight Howard ranked dead last amongst his fellow NBA signature-shoe peers. His shoes were absolute trash even by adidas standards. And now that he’ll join Peak, a brand whose most notable NBA ambassador was the artist formerly known as Ron Artest, his shoes are bound to get even worse.

Fortunately, there’s still a chance, with a market as big as China’s in which the Houston Rockets are arguably the most popular NBA team, for Dwight Howard’s sneaker deal to be worth way more than Harden’s. Even if a slightly.

For Dwight and Harden, this could be what sparks the first feud(s), of many to come, between them inside the Houston Rockets locker room. While one is pampered by the second-largest sporting goods company in the world, the other one is sent into sneaker purgatory.

Or it also could mean nothing for them since their still making boat-loads of cash on playing basketball alone. Who the hell knows?

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