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Rockets better with Howard, but still have a long way to go

By pairing together in Houston, Howard and Harden have given each other a chance to be champions. How they're going to accomplish that goal, and who their
Ian Thomsen|
Rockets better with Howard, but still have a long way to go
Rockets better with Howard, but still have a long way to go

By pairing together in Houston, Howard and Harden have given each other a chance to be champions. How they're going to accomplish that goal, and who their teammates will be, are issues that have yet to be resolved. Every leader of an NBA title team looks back on his first title and admits that the mission was more difficult and complicated than he ever imagined. Their experiences show there can be no guarantee that two prodigious talents like Howard and Harden can instantly achieve their championship goal. There are other teams out there with comparable talent and hunger.

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Ian Thomsen
IAN THOMSEN

Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated Sports Illustrated Senior Writer Ian Thomsen, who joined the magazine in 1998, is one of SI's top basketball scribes. Along with writing columns and features for SI, Thomsen is a frequent contributor to SI.com. Before joining SI, Thomsen spent six years in Europe as the sports columnist for the International Herald Tribune, the world's largest international English-language daily. While at the paper Thomsen wrote about an array of sports for a global audience, including the major world and European soccer tournaments, the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Olympic Games, Ryder Cups, Grand Slam tennis events, Grand Prix auto races and, very rarely, cricket. Thomsen, who graduated from Northwestern with a journalism degree in 1983, was a feature writer for The National Sports Daily during its short, expensive run of 1990-91. His first job was with The Boston Globe, where he covered Doug Flutie's Boston College Eagles and all three of the Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals of the 1980s. Thomsen was a feature writer at SI before taking on the NBA beat fulltime in 2000. With Luis Fernando Llosa and Melissa Segura, Thomsen covered the 2001 scandal of overaged Little League pitcher Danny Almonte and wrote the first SI cover story on Kobe Bryant in 1998. Thomsen lives with his wife and two children near Boston.

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