"We are twins": Harden and Nash's tacit understanding on the way to the championship, will they achieve each other

Before James Harden and Steve Nash accepted the challenge of leading the Nets to the championship, Mike D'Antoni had the basic idea: Nash and Harden would work well together.

It was June 2016, and D'Antoni had just been hired as rocket head coach to take over the team's top player Harden. At Houston, D'Antoni wanted to borrow from his "7 seconds or less" style in Phoenix, when Nash was at the helm. The coach called his former point guard and wanted to offer a consulting position dedicated to coaching Harden. The coach envisions Harden as the main controller.

Nash refused. He's already doing something similar in the Warriors. On short flights from Los Angeles to San Francisco every few weeks, he accepted. A month later, he will train with new signing star Kevin Durant.

Until last year, de Shuai's vision was finally realized. As Nash's assistant coach, he watched the Nets trade half of the players and a bunch of draft picks in exchange for Harden, thus assembling Naha, his two strongest disciples.

Before the trade, Harden and Nash didn't know each other very well. For years, they competed as rivals, but the relationship did not go any further. At the Nets, the idea of a coach quickly became a reality. Harden and Nash hit it off and learned a lot from each other.

Now, with Kyrie Irving leaving the team indefinitely, the Nets need Harden and Nash to do what they can to achieve their championship vision. Luckily, in Brooklyn, Harden and Nash were in tune for a long time.

Nash said: "People like him quickly attracted me. He is passionate about the game and works very hard. Be serious, enjoy the game, and have fun. So coaching someone like him I would be willing to spend time. I'm also like him, very, very focused, want to win, like to compete, like to be part of the team. But at the same time, I like to enjoy the game, find fun, and laugh. So we're similar people, and that's exactly what I want. I think he also had an incredible impact on the team, which is important to me. ”

Long before Brooklyn focused on Nash, Harden was his student. The coach's first meeting with Harden was in a trendy way: watching the video. They met at the Toyota Center in Houston and studied the video of the game when the Coach led the Suns, and Nash was the focus of the study.

Harden watched as his future coach took control of the attack on the court, while the coach encouraged his new supergiant to emulate nash's system and move from flank to master. In the video, Nash is able to play both the core of the organization and the scorer, launching a large number of blocks.

"James (Harden)," the coach said. "You can do it all."

He did it. Harden increased from 7.5 assists per game to 11.2 in the league, while scoring per game remained largely unchanged. Houston rose from eighth to third in the West. Coaches took note of the change and compared Harden's organizational skills to another master ( Nash ) .

In 2017, an NBA head coach told Sports Illustrated: "Watching this team last year, they all screwed up. Now, they're all done again. Harden became Nash. He was like an active Nash who had beaten hormones. ”

Four years later, recalling the passage, Nash smiled and made no secret of it.

"When he took the ball and looked at the situation on the pitch, we both saw the same thing." Nash said, "I understand what he's thinking, he's prejudging, looking for pass angles, reading about defense. Not only can he make the right decisions, but he can also go one step further, using angles and timing to manipulate the opposing defense. I can definitely understand his game; we are different players, but these aspects: create scoring opportunities, make your teammates better, give players the opportunity to play. That's all part of our game. ”

They are all famous in Phoenix, Nash at the Suns, and Harden at nearby Arizona State University. And in Brooklyn, they quickly found common ground. Both were coached by D'Antoni and won the MVP. They are all minority shareholders in Major League Soccer, Harden at Dynamo Houston and Nash at the Vancouver White hats.

On the pitch, they play at a fast pace. Both led the team to the top of the Western Conference, but fell short in the playoffs due to injuries or facing Dynasty teams. They give the impression that players are divided into two categories, those who are suitable for their teammates and those who are not. In Houston, former Rockets assistant coach Kelvin Sampson said Harden's mentoring of the team was not up to as good as anyone who did the job. It's reminiscent of Nash's coach at Santa Clara University, Dick David, who once said, "I'm the head coach. But my job Steve does no less than I do. ”

"We're twins." Harden said, "It's just that skin color is different." ”

Even twins have a difference. Harden's beard rivals Santa's, and Nash's face resembles that of the New York Yankees baseball team. As Nash mentions, Harden (1.96m, 100kg) is like a rugby center-back, while he (1.91m, 81kg) looks more like a baseball guerrilla.

Speaking of his two disciples, the coach said: "Steve relies more on vision and flexibility than James (Harden). Harden will go straight past you. ”

Just like he is a player and a coach, Nash also gave Harden such freedom. Last season, the 32-year-old defender was an MVP candidate before a hamstring strain. Nash said his first guarantee is Harden's health this season. Long-term conquest, Fang shows greatness. They can then explore how to improve the game if needed.

As they worked together, Harden found that they were subconsciously following the same path. As they say, twins share brains. In May, on a Nets road trip, Nash organized a video conference. For the rest of the day, Harden was busy with the matter. In the evening, he called nash to discuss and found that the coach was still working on the video. They talked for 15 to 20 minutes, and Harden said they also talked on the phone until the offseason.

"The level at which he observes the game is not ordinary." Harden said of Nash, "Just like summer, he called me, I called him, and we just talked about how we could get better. He just communicates with me constantly like 'I know you saw this, but see that next time'. Something like this. It's like having one more eye to see how I'm getting better. Ultimately, this will make our team better. ”

For Nash, he found his niche after talking to Harden because his basketball mind is "very smart." As a coach, he tries to coach not just for the sake of coaching. Learning when to speak and when to let players evolve on their own is part of his philosophy and a strategy learned from the coach. Harden's organization of offense is critical to the team's success. Nash didn't want to over-direct him and avoid negatively affecting his point guard's decisions. Harden's strategy is the same when it comes to advising his teammates.

"For me, every action [in the video] has a purpose." Nash said. "What can we get out of this clip, action or scene? Because sometimes you may find it hard to add something new to someone's thought process, and it's all random or trivial. We should not. Sometimes you might think, for example, 'This is important', 'This angle is more important than that', 'This time it's a different way of playing than that time', or 'This time the defensive concept is completely different from that time'. ”

"These are no templates to refer to... It's really important to think from the player's point of view. How can I positively influence them without overburdening them, feeling lost, and in a gray area? I think it's a very important part of a coaching career. ”

Although Harden sees himself and Nash as twins, those around him believe that they are similar but different. For Durant, they are all "conductors" with the ability to control the ball and control the game. Durant said both Harden and Nash called themselves point guards, "they were cut from the same piece of cloth." ”

Deshuai does not speak of the similarities or differences between his most famous disciples, but of their respective greatnesses.

"The similarity is that they are two incredible geniuses."

'They're the best players in the game, one of the best in that position, the top in history.

The Biggest Similarity the Nets hope they have is in June, when both Harden and Nash can win the long-awaited NBA championship.