James Harden is one of the best players in the league, but, and you may not know this, he’s been playing with asthma, which is incredible considering his usage.
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Harden has been one of the most durable stars in the league, playing most of his team’s games every year, except for last year when he dealt with a bevy of injuries.
The former Houston Rocket and current Net has definitely seen his workload decline after coming to Brooklyn as he now has the luxury of playing alongside Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, but in his Houston days, he was really slogging it out, playing crazy minutes while having an incredible usage percentage.
Is James Harden the best scorer in the NBA? pic.twitter.com/gUBNR8Tndr
— ESPN (@espn) September 6, 2021
James Harden Has Been Managing Crazy Workload While Having Asthma
Harden has been suffering from asthma for a long time, having to deal with the problem since he was a kid. He would use inhalers during his university days and even during NBA games between breaks and in timeouts.
The situation was really risky last year with the Covid-19 pandemic. Asthma was deemed to be a pre-existing condition for the disease, and so Harden was really high risk for catching the disease.
It was especially impressive that he played last year, during the pandemic, with his high usage rate, and while playing 36+ minutes a game. When the NBA shifted to the Orlando bubble last year, conditions were tough as players were very isolated and had to live within the constraints of the bubble. However, Harden still pulled it off, as he often does.
Harden had issues last season as his hamstring injury in the playoffs took him out for a few games. Now, he’s using the entire summer to rest and recover so he can gear up for another long NBA season.
