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James Harden made good on a promise to a victim of the shooting at Michigan State earlier this year by bringing him to game four of the 76ers playoff series Sunday.
In February, Philadelphia 76ers superstar James Harden befriended a Michigan State student who was a victim of a school shooting that killed three students and injured five, including 20-year-old John Hao.
Harden learned Hao was a superfan of his after the school shooting and knew that he had to do something.
“The more I can encourage and rub off this energy that I have and give him hope, I feel like that’s what I’m here for,” Harden said in February. “And that’s what I’ve got this platform for. Hopefully he can recover and bounce back out of that sooner than later, but I gave him my number, so whenever he ever feels like he needs anything he can call me and I can check up on him.”
James Harden shows up for superfan
Harden told Hao, who was left paralyzed from the chest down after a bullet severed his spinal cord and critically injured his lungs, that he wanted to get the international student from China to a game when he was able to go. On Sunday, Hao was in attendance in Philadelphia for game four of the playoff series between the Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics.
Harden finished the game with 42 points, eight rebounds, and nine assists tying the playoff series with the Celtics at 2-2, and credited Hao as the good luck charm.
As the series shifts back to Boston for one game, Harden wants Hao to make plans for game six back in Philly.
“I don’t know what you got going or what your schedule is, but Game 6 you gotta be back here,” Harden told Hao postgame. “Because you’re the good luck charm.”