After the Houston Rockets defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 107-100 on Wednesday to cut the latter’s series lead to one game, the CSN Houston postgame show offered us possibly the best highlight from the first round of the NBA Playoffs. Well, at least the best highlight that doesn’t involve JR Smith dancing in front of a giddy Louis CK.

Co-hosts Chet Bongwater and Calvin Swissbeaver offered their viewers the scoop on something something blah blah blah – HOLY SH*T is that a baby? Yes, it is, and that baby is suddenly the star of an NBA Playoffs first round that has been defined by depressing injuries and benchwarmers picking fights with stars.

While we don’t know what happened next, I’ll assume that the baby’s mom showed up to take care of the situation, before calling Shawn Kemp and demanding that he handle his share of the parenting.

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Seeing as David Stern and the NBA prefer putting superstar-led teams on ESPN and TNT, and AT&T U-Verse doesn’t have NBA TV available for po’ folk like me, I don’t get to watch Javale McGee’s crazy ass play as much as I’d like to. So I have to depend on Twitter and the great Denver bloggers and writers that I follow to fill me in on the crazy things he says or does each week. It also helps that McGee has his own Twitter account, and his Goofus ways inspire a new meme practically every other week (see above).

But every once in a while, McGee stops sipping the crazy juice long enough to show a flash of brilliance that could be put in the shoe box of evidence that he uses to proclaim his status as one of the best centers in the NBA. Well, at least he’s paid like he believes that.

Last night was one of those brilliant moments, as McGee was on the receiving end of a ¾-court pass from Andre Miller for an alley-oop jam. Of course, the Nuggets lost to the Brooklyn Nets, 119-108, but it’s still nice that McGee flashed a little potential.

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In my haste to get caught up on the things that I loved and hated most about the NBA Playoffs so far – Rajon Rondo and Joey Crawford, respectively – I almost forgot my absolute biggest new sports man crush, James Harden. If the Oklahoma City Thunder don’t win it all this season, they better damn well get it done next season, because after that they’re probably going to have to do it without Harden, who will be due for one hell of a payday.

I don’t, by any means, think that Harden is a superstar. I also don’t think he deserves a max deal. However, if my team – and this is hypothetically pretending that my team won’t be in salary cap hell for the next three years – decided to throw the checkbook at Harden, I would squeal with delight. There’s just something about him that makes me love basketball even more than I already do. Maybe it’s the beard or maybe it’s just his fearlessness, but Harden is flat out F-U-N to watch.

After the jump, I’ve created a little mish mash of my favorite Harden moments from this year’s playoffs and other games to show my respect, in case he wants to be my best friend.

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