James Harden and Trevor Ariza played significant roles in convincing Eric Gordon to sign with the Houston Rockets.
"It was sometime last summer," Gordon writes at The Players Tribune. "Early June, maybe. My phone lights up and I see the name flash on the screen: James Harden."
"James and I have been good friends ever since we played together in the McDonald's All-American game in 2007," Gordon writes, "but I wasn't sure why he would be calling me on a random weekday afternoon. I picked up, and before I could even say anything, James started in with:
"'Are you signing with us, or what?'
"No 'Hey, how's it going?' or anything like that. All business.
"Almost the second I hung up, my phone lit up again. This time it was Trevor Ariza.
"'Are you signing with us, or what?'
"It was like a coordinated attack. I was like, Wow, these guys aren't messing around."