James Harden made one request upon joining the Cleveland Cavaliers after the big trade in February.
It was something off the court, a practice he’d engaged in for most of his 17 storied NBA seasons, where tape ends up on the floor. The kind of thing a few of his new, younger Cavaliers teammates had never done before, while even some veterans had only dabbled in it here or there, but certainly not in Cleveland.
When Harden’s new coach, Kenny Atkinson, heard Harden make the request, he scrunched his eyes and shook his head. “I’m like, eh, this isn’t my thing,” Atkinson recalled as his initial response.
There are other teams in the NBA that would simply refuse to partake in such behavior. But Harden was coming from L.A., where this sort of thing was common.
Harden, 36, with his famous, protruding beard and those dark, piercing eyes, was determined to use his star power to get his way, to bring with him a slice of comfort to a new city.
Harden asked the Cavs if they would mind…staging walk-throughs in hotel ballrooms on game days with no shootarounds on the road.
What? What did you think he was going to ask for, sickos?
“It’s just preparation, detail, you get ready for the game,” Harden explained to The Athletic. “Physically you get out and move around, and mentally you have to be prepared. It’s just preparation man, especially going into this run that we are about to go into. I think the focus is making sure we know who we’re playing against and individual guys and what they like to do with their tendencies. Just going to give us an advantage and hopefully we can play better.”
The Cavs acquired Harden from the LA Clippers for Darius Garland in one of the biggest deadline deals of the season, won their first five games with him in uniform, and are 18-6 with him on the court. Cleveland’s offense is the best in the NBA since he played his first game Feb. 7.
Harden is one of the league’s greatest playmakers, especially in isolation offense, which he has run with mastery for most of his career. But that’s not really the Cavs’ offense under Atkinson — they’re more of a passing and cutting unit. Which is why, when Atkinson was asked over the last two weeks about acclimating Harden into the team, he marveled at how few changes they had to make to accommodate his game. The walkthrough thing was, Atkinson said, Harden’s only request for change.
“He’s completely adapted to our style of play, which is pretty, I would assume, rare,” Atkinson said.
Harden is an 11-time All-Star who was arguably snubbed from the NBA’s exhibition classic this season after playing so well for the Clippers. He’s never missed the playoffs, ever, a streak that was extended with the Cavs’ win over Golden State last week that clinched them a spot in the tournament.
Stars wield power in professional sports, and that power can lead to some strange requests of their employers. Michael Jordan, No. 3 pick of the 1984 draft who turned out to be pretty good, insisted on a clause in his first contract with the Chicago Bulls that allowed him to play pick-up basketball. It was called a “Love of the Game” clause. By comparison to some of the other crazy requests in pro sports history, Jordan’s was tame.
Former Major League pitcher Roy Oswalt negotiated a bulldozer from the Houston Astros for winning playoff games. After his storied Major League career was finished, Manny Ramirez went to Japan and asked for (and received) unlimited free sushi, a Mercedes and a driver, and language in his contract stating that, for him, practices were “optional.”
Players can also make requests, but these are more like demands, to leave a team before their contracts are up, via trade. This happens from time to time in the NBA. What are some examples? Hmmm, let’s see… oh, yes, Kawhi Leonard famously did this once, pushing his way out of San Antonio. Jimmy Butler has pulled it off a couple of times. Anthony Davis forced New Orleans to trade him to the Lakers, Kyrie Irving pushed the Cavs to trade him in the summer of 2017, and so on.
In other sports, John Elway, a Hall-of-Fame quarterback, threatened to play baseball for the Yankees instead of joining the Baltimore Colts, who drafted him in 1983, and they ultimately traded him to Denver. Two decades later, in 2004, Eli Manning succeeded in getting San Diego to trade him immediately after drafting him No. 1.
Again, what!? Harden would ne…OK, fine, but his singular request of Cleveland was nothing like that.
“I was like, a little skeptical. I think film (is enough),” Atkinson explained of Harden’s ballroom request. “And then we did it, and we went through it. So we’re like communicating through it and talking through coverages and I’m like, hey, this could be a good thing.”
Most NBA teams at least occasionally hold something on the morning of their games called a “shootaround.” It’s a partial practice, on the court, usually at the arena (for the road team), in which coaches go over the opponent’s tendencies, game plans are discussed and players finish with shooting drills.
But those shootarounds can be canceled for any number of reasons, including if the game is the second in consecutive nights, or if the team is in the middle of a tough stretch of travel or practiced the day before. In those situations for the Cavs, under Atkinson, they have used individual and team film sessions to prepare for that night’s game.
When Harden arrived via trade, a trade he requested from the Clippers, as he has done from time-to-time during his career, he was leaving behind a coach in Tyronn Lue who often uses ballroom walk-throughs instead of holding shootarounds on the road. (Irony: Lue did these walk-throughs when he coached the Cavs, a while back.)
Low-level assistants use athletic tape to re-create on the ballroom floor the boundaries on a basketball court (like a regulation paint, 3-point line, etc.). Players schlep downstairs, wearing slippers or sandals, and walk through the game plan and what to expect from their opponents.
“Football, they do it all the time,” Atkinson said. “There are definitely coaches in this league that do it. I’ve been with teams that have done it, I have been with teams that haven’t done it. I haven’t done it personally, I’ve done it in the playoffs. I think we’ve done (three) with him, and it’s like, man, I like this. Because they have to talk through their coverage, even if they’re in their slippers.”
Donovan Mitchell, the Cavs’ resident superstar, said he used to do ballroom walkthroughs with the Utah Jazz under then-coach Quin Snyder. He called it a “more old-school” approach, and said committing a game plan to muscle memory carries huge benefits for the game that night.
“You don’t gotta go full speed, and you can be in your socks for all we care,” Mitchell said. “Being able to be in certain positions in the morning so that way your brain remembers it at night, I think, that’s something I’ve done my whole career. And every coach is different, right, everybody’s different. But I think (Harden) bringing that, I think is special.”
Have other things “changed” for the Cavs since Harden’s arrival? Sure.
Atkinson says all the time that Cleveland is a “better team” now. Harden wasn’t the only trade acquisition (Dennis Schröder and Keon Ellis also came to the Cavs from Sacramento), but it’s clear the Cavs view Harden’s size, experience and “IQ” as upgrades.
Mitchell said the Cavs’ offense has changed, a little, to incorporate Harden’s isolation dominance, but also said Harden has fit into their original schemes. He called playing alongside Harden “calming,” and Utah coach Will Hardy said the combination of Harden and Mitchell on the floor together is “nightmare fuel.”
“We’re not gonna completely flip, right?” Mitchell said. “I think that’s a testament to him. We’ve also adjusted, and we knew that when we were gonna make the trade, we’re going to have to adjust, for sure. And for him, you see how easy it is for him to make these plays, right? So (the change for the Cavs is) kind of being able to stay in our spots, not as much movement. And then when I’m in the second unit, it’s like, all right, we’re going (to run).”
For his part, Harden said “I’m comfortable” with the Cavs, as in, their schemes and with his new teammates. And, it appears, their practice habits.
“That’s why you listen to your players, too,” Atkinson said, circling back to the walk-throughs. “At first I was like eh, I wasn’t a big fan. Let’s talk in two months and see if I still like it.”
Just tape on a ballroom floor. Players in slippers.
For James Harden, that’s a pretty modest request.
