He has widened the gap with Zhou Qi, became a starter with a contract of 10 million, and married the most beautiful woman in the NBA

Snails and basketballs

2024-05-19 11:51Published in Yunnan

He and Zhou Qi were selected by the same team in the same pick, their talent is not as good as Zhou Qi, and their playing opportunities are far inferior to Zhou Qi. But now Zhou Qi can only return to play in the CBA, but he has gained a firm foothold in the NBA, become an NBA starter, get a contract of tens of millions of dollars, shine in the Eastern Conference semifinals, and marry the most beautiful woman in the NBA, and live the life that many people dream of through unremitting efforts.

His name is Isaiah Hartenstein, a center with a height of 2.13 meters and an arm span of 2.19 meters, and he was selected by the Rockets with the 43rd pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. The year before, Zhou Qi was also selected by the Rockets with the 43rd pick, and Zhou Qi's talent is better than Harden - 2.17 meters tall, 2.33 meters in reach, and has projection ability, and the NBA development prospects are better than Harden.

At the beginning, Zhou Qi had more opportunities to play than Hatten, but he failed to seize the opportunity to show himself, often made low-level mistakes, and played softly, and said "I'm not ready", and Hatten was always ready, every time he played, he was as energetic as playing chicken blood, and gradually, he had more opportunities to play than Zhou Qi.

In his second season with the Rockets, Harden averaged 4.7 points and 3.9 rebounds in 11.6 minutes per game while shooting 65.7 percent from the field. Unlike Zhou Qi, who was unpopular, he was cut and got a new contract after his good performance, signing a two-year base salary contract with the Nuggets in 2020, with a player option for the second year.

Whether it is the Nuggets who don't get the opportunity or the Cavaliers who get stable playing time, Harden is always ready to play, and every time he plays, he can bring energy to the team, averaging 8.3 points, 6 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.2 blocks per game in the Cavaliers, shooting 58.7% from the field, and is already a qualified rotation player.

After playing well, he felt that he deserved a bigger contract, so he turned down the next year's $1.8 million contract, but the Cavaliers, who did not lack interior players, did not offer a new contract extension for him, and he became a free agent again, and reality poured cold water on him, he was unpopular in the free market, and finally had to sign a non-guaranteed training camp contract with the Clippers.

In the weak interior of the Clippers, he got more opportunities to play, he cherished this hard-won opportunity very much, a big man of more than two meters often played a good act of flying to save the ball, and he was also very active in grabbing rebounds in the front court, injecting new vitality into the team, although the scoring ability was limited, but he was able to grab rebounds and defend, and his outstanding performance impressed the Clippers, and the team converted his contract to full guarantee in the middle of the season.

That season, he played in 68 games, averaging 17.9 minutes per game, contributing 8.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 0.7 steals and 1.1 blocks, shooting 62.6 percent from the field and shooting 46.7 percent from three-point range, a beautiful stat sheet that landed him a two-year, $16 million contract.

In his first season with the Knicks, he played most of the time off the bench, and head coach Thibodeau liked his desperate efforts, but his scoring ability was so poor that staying on the court was a double-edged sword. In order to gain the trust of his coaches, he worked his throws and shots in the offseason, and this season he has been able to use his throws to score after receiving the ball near the free throw line, finishing more efficiently after receiving passes from teammates, hitting occasional three-pointers from the pot, and being able to score in response to his teammates, which has allowed him to play more and more playing time.

He played in 75 games in the regular season, 49 of which he started and averaged 25.3 minutes per game, scoring 7.8 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.1 blocks while shooting 64.4 percent from the field. He is averaging 3.3 rebounds per game, a career-high steals and 1.1 blocks per game, and Thibodeau likes this type of player too much.

In this year's playoffs, Randle was injured, Robinson was also injured, and the Knicks' interior line was all supported by Harden, and he currently started 11 playoff games, averaging 29.5 minutes per game, contributing 9.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 0.2 steals and 1 block, shooting 62% from the field, and he was able to grab 3.9 frontcourt rebounds per game, ranking first on the team.

In the Eastern Conference semifinals, the battle between the Knicks and the Pacers, Harden played 31 minutes and grabbed 17 rebounds, 12 of which were frontcourt rebounds, and he alone had 7 more frontcourt rebounds than the Pacers, which is crazy to think about. In addition, he also contributed 7 points on 2-of-3 shooting, and dished out five assists and one block to help the Knicks outscore their opponents by 30 points.

In this year's playoffs, Harden is definitely one of the brightest role players, and after the season, there will definitely be multiple teams to give him a contract with an average of 10 million dollars per year, and he finally has enough capital to repay the beautiful wife who never left him.

Hatten's wife's name is Courtney Kayla, a glamorous model developed in Los Angeles, born in 1991, 7 years older than Hatten. The two met at a friend's party, when Harden was just an NBA transparent with a rookie contract, but in the process of getting along, Kayla felt that Harden was a particularly hard-working, particularly motivated player, she admired this kind of man very much, and the two fell in love soon after.

Kayla has a successful career, her figure and appearance are particularly outstanding, after she and Harten were together, she was once known as the most beautiful woman in the NBA, many people felt that Harten had climbed high, but Kayla ignored the voices of the outside world, consistently supported Harten, and has been training with Harten in the offseason, Harten didn't want to live up to such a good woman, practiced harder, and then gradually got his head, and after getting a two-year $16 million contract, he married Kayla, and then he will get a bigger contract, so that Kayla can live a happier life.

Harden proved that Kayla's decision was not wrong, and at the same time proved that if you work hard, you have a chance to come out. He doesn't have Zhou Qi's physical talent, and his basketball skills are rougher than Zhou Qi, but he opened the gap by working a hundred times harder than Zhou Qi, and when Zhou Qi was not ready, he made sufficient preparations from the day before the game started, even though he may not get the opportunity to play, but he is always ready and cannot waste every opportunity to play, this is the survival of NBA fringe players.

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