The leading NBA MVP candidate this season, Houston Rockets guard James Harden has long moved on from his roots in South Central, Los Angeles.
This doesn’t mean that the SNIPdaily NBA’s seventh-most popular figure this year has forgotten about his childhood in the inner city.
While in Los Angeles for the All-Star Game earlier in February, Harden surprised his former Audubon Middle School in Crenshaw with a refurbished gymnasium and basketball courts.
Here, he talks to ESPN’s Shelley Smith about the gift.
Harden also took time to produce his Adidas shoe line while at his old stomping grounds during the break.
For Harden, the idea of helping his old middle school refurbish its basketball courts hit home big time. It’s an aspect of his childhood that helped him make it out of one of the most-violent areas in the United States and become the face of the NBA.
“Man … Audubon is where I learned to love the game of basketball. On the playgrounds …,” Harden said, via ESPN’s The Undefeated. “It’s where I fell in love with the game, and I just took it from there.”
It’s a tremendous thing to see millionaire NBA stars give back to their old downtrodden communities. Last year, Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James announced that he was planning on opening up a school in the Akron area of Ohio.
And just this week, former Harden teammate — Kevin Durant of the Golden State Warriors — announced a $10 million pledge to his old stomping grounds near D.C. to help underprivileged children entertain the idea of going to college.
The more we see these basketball players do in their communities, the more we realize they are, in fact, more than just basketball players. Harden represents this to a T.
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