NBA highlight reel: A look back at last season's top 5 plays from Superstars
How many such moments will “The Brow” give us this season?The long summer has finally come to an end, the 2015-16 NBA regular season tips-off in a fortnight from today. The regular season is a long 82 game grind for the teams and a seven month basketball extravaganza for the fans. If we consider the post-season as well, then the NBA keeps basketball minds occupied for 9 of 12 months of a year.At the end of regular season, the NBA releases the top 10 plays, buzzer beaters, assists and so forth. Yet as a fan, some plays by a player or the team as a whole are etched in our memories forever. Sometimes it’s the degree of difficulty involved, sometimes it’s because the player is a crowd favorite or sometimes it’s the pressure of the moment.Following is a list of top 5 plays by league superstars from last season:
#5 James Harden puts Ricky Rubio on skates
At the end of the regular season, James Harden and Stephen Curry were really the only two legitimate candidates for the MVP hardware. While both had celebrated seasons to boast about, their paths to greatness were very different. Curry, the best player on the NBA's best team last season, averaged 32.7 minutes per game and sat out 17 fourth quarters as the Golden State Warriors had dominated the first three periods of the game. On the other hand Harden averaged 37 minutes of playing time and was busy in the fourth quarter clinching a few close games for the Houston Rockets.
When we talk handles in the NBA, everybody seems to have just two names on their lips - Curry and Kyrie Irving. Harden might not even be mentioned a close third yet his dribbling is a very crucial part of his offense. An underrated ball handler, Harden perfected his step back jumper this past season to a level where he had become unstoppable at times. The efficiency with which he would knock down his jumper had crossed such a level that he had a routine every time. He would use one of his hands as a pot and stir with his other hand, probably signaling how he just cooked the defender.
In the video below, Harden used some nifty dribbles to bring defender Ricky Rubio to the floor before knocking down the step back three at the end of the quarter.