Houston Rockets’ James Harden talks Dwight Howard

Adding the game’s best big man, Dwight Howard, to a playoff team that already had a superstar in guard James Harden didn’t automatically make the Houston Rockets a title contender, but it certainly could.

That’s why Harden went with the Rockets when they went to talk to Howard in the summer.

“I didn’t go out and recruit Dwight [but] I’m one of the leaders of this team with Dwight being here. I needed to be there,” Harden said of the Rockets’ July meeting with Howard via Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe. “He’s a special talent. It’s hard to find someone his size and as athletic as him that can move, so I wanted to be part of that meeting and the meeting went well, obviously.

“I want to win a championship and it’s easier said than done. Him being here is definitely the right step. It’s going to be a lot of hard work but we’re a young team. We play the same way that he loves to play. We’re going to give him the ball as much as possible. We needed him to come here and do what he does best.”

The Rockets are currently 40-19, tied for fourth in the Western Conference.