The chants followed them to Tokyo, honorifics that rose from the Saitama Super Arena crowd as clearly as in Toyota Center.

“MVP! MVP!”

The way boxing champions forever answer to “champ” and ex-presidents are always called “Mr. President,” James Harden and Russell Westbrook had earned that NBA measure of respect.

“MVP! MVP!”

Eventually, the chant can become a lobbying effort, an argument made in support of a candidate for the award. For now, it is a high-volume recitation of the measure of greatness the members of the Rockets’ backcourt share the way they share a history that goes back to a Los Angeles Boys and Girls Club and a friendship that lasted through the ensuing years, partnerships and competitions.

There are seven active NBA players who have been named MVP. Two play for the Rockets. Both insist they have moved on to other, greater goals.

“It feels great any time you hear those chants,” Harden said. “Both of us have accomplished that unbelievable goal of being MVP. I think the reason we’re here together is to accomplish something bigger than that. We’re (going) in the right direction.”

There have been 13 other pairings of MVP winners, only two with recipients so freshly named when they teamed up. Those combinations worked spectacularly well. Kevin Durant, the 2013-14 winner, and Stephen Curry, who took the next two MVP awards, won a pair of championships with the Warriors. Julius Erving, the 1981 winner, and Moses Malone, who won the next season, captured the 1983 championship with the 76ers, with Malone also taking another MVP.

More Information MVP, MVP When two MVS were on the same team: Bob Cousy, Bill Russell Celtics 1960-61 to 1962-63 The Celtics’ trade of Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan for Russell, the second pick of the 1956 draft, put him with Cousy and began a decade of dominance. Oscar Robertson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Bucks 1971-72 to 1973-74 Robertson, acquired for Flynn Robinson and Charlie Paulk, did not approach his Royals numbers with the Bucks, but with Abdul-Jabbar (known as Lew Alcindor in their first season together) at the height of his powers, he helped make them champions. Abdul-Jabbar, Bob McAdoo Lakers 1981-82 to 1984-85 McAdoo had been a three-time NBA scoring champion five years before he joined the Showtime Lakers, becoming a reliable scorer off the bench. Moses Malone, Julius Erving 76ers 1982-83 to 1985-86 Malone and Erving both had begun their careers in the ABA, both had become NBA MVPs, and both had lost in the NBA Finals, Malone with the 1980-81 Rockets. When they joined forces in Philadelphia, they delivered a title in a sweep of the Lakers. Larry Bird, Bill Walton Celtics 1985-86 to 1986-87 Walton was not the centerpiece of the Celtics, as he had been in his 1977-78 MVP season with the Trail Blazers. But he became Sixth Man of the Year (the third straight for the franchise that invented the Sixth Man concept) and one of the reasons the ’86 Celtics are among the best teams ever. Magic Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar Lakers 1987-88 to 1988-89 Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar had been together since Johnson’s 1979-80 rookie season, when they won the championship, with Johnson joining Abdul-Jabbar, a six-time MVP winner, with his own MVP in 1986-87 when the Lakers won the first of consecutive titles. Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley Rockets 1996-97 to 1999-2000 Olajuwon and Barkley had won MVPs in consecutive seasons, with Olajuwon’s Rockets beating Barkley’s Suns on the way to back-to-back titles. After a second-round sweep led the Rockets to pair Sir Charles with The Dream, they reached the Western Conference finals together, but the Rockets never reached the championship heights again. David Robinson, Tim Duncan Spurs 2002-03 Rarely has the passing of an MVP torch gone as smoothly or successfully as when Robinson, the 1994-95 winner, teamed with Duncan, who would win in 2001-02. The next season, the Spurs would claim the second of their five championships. Karl Malone, Shaquille O’Neal Lakers 2003-04 Malone’s final NBA season was with O’Neal several seasons before Kobe Bryant would also become an MVP winner. The Lakers reached the Finals but, with Malone limited and then eventually forced to sit out with a sprained right knee, lost to the Pistons in five games. Steve Nash, O’Neal Suns 2007-08 to 2008-09 The Suns chose to become more conventional by bringing O’Neal in from Miami for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks, but the mix never worked, with O‘Neal beginning a stretch of joining established superstars with the Cavs, Celtics and TNT. LeBron James, O’Neal Cavaliers 2009-10 O’Neal was 37 when the Cavs sent Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic to Phoenix in the hopes of breaking the Cleveland championship curse that would not be conquered until James returned from Miami. Kevin Garnett, O’Neal Celtics 2010-11 Father Time won. O’Neal lost. Achilles and calf injuries limited him to just 37 games and career lows for points, rebounds and assists. He played in just two postseason games. Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry Warriors 2016-17 to 2018-19 The Warriors won 73 games and the NBA title, topping Durant’s Thunder along the way, before Durant joined them. With Durant, they won two more championships, with Durant the Finals MVP each season before he was hurt in last season’s postseason and moved on again. James Harden, Russell Westbrook Rockets 2019-20 Friends since childhood and teammates with the Thunder before their MVP days, Westbrook and Harden are reunited while still in their prime, seeking the championship that was one step away when they were last together.

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Other MVP unions have brought championships. Only two — Bill Russell and Bob Cousy with the Celtics and David Robinson and Tim Duncan with the Spurs — saw the players win the MVP as teammates before also taking their teams to titles.

Only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has joined three fellow MVPs — Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson and Bob McAdoo — on his teams and won titles with each.

The Rockets’ pairing of MVPs is not the franchise’s first. Charles Barkley joined Hakeem Olajuwon in 1996-97.

Most often, when MVPs come together, at least one is past his prime. That can work. Bill Walton was Sixth Man of the Year when he won a championship with Larry Bird. More often, as with Karl Malone joining Shaquille O’Neal for a season, or O’Neal pairing with Steve Nash or LeBron James, the combinations brought more excitement than triumph.

Yet with all that precedent since Bob Pettit was the first MVP in 1955-56, the Rockets duo can be considered unique.

Never have former Most Valuable Players playing such comparable positions in similar ways been paired.

The closest combination might be Olajuwon and Barkley, who played different positions but by that stage of their careers operated best when in the low post and on the boards. The idea was to have Barkley do some of the dirty work to help keep Olajuwon fresh to dominate when needed most and to keep Olajuwon’s window of greatness open longer. They reached the Western Conference finals in their first year together but never returned.

Harden and Westbrook, however, share far more. Though Harden spent three seasons with Westbrook and several seasons since as a shooting guard, both were point guards when they were MVP winners. Both are among the most high-usage players in NBA history. Both are their best with the ball, putting their team’s offense in their hands.

Both also have no doubt they can adjust.

“When you’re that great of a basketball player, you just go out there and hoop,” Harden said. “There’s no like, ‘Oh, you have to change your game.’ We’ll figure it out. It’s not difficult. We’ll let everyone else outside the locker room talk about, ‘Can they figure it out?’ Nah. We’re going to figure it out. It’s going to happen. It’s going to be easy.”

There is recent precedent for Harden’s optimism. Though Chris Paul never won an MVP, he has twice finished third and was considered of that caliber. When there were similar questions about how he and Harden could thrive together as there have been now, Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni insisted they would make it work because their gifts and determination would allow them to succeed.

The Rockets won 65 games and reached the Western Conference finals that season, losing the final two games against the Warriors after Paul was hurt. The pairing lasted just two seasons, with Paul packaged with first-round draft picks to land Westbrook. But that stretch seemed to build the foundation for the Rockets’ plans now, from D’Antoni’s intention to again stagger his star guards’ playing time to each’s intention to cede control to the other as games develop.

“It just depends on the course of the game,” Harden said. “For myself, Russ, Eric (Gordon), talented players, you don’t want to take that away from each individual, because that’s what makes you who you are. You just have — throughout the course of the game — to figure out ways. There’s going to be times throughout the course of the game when I’ve got it going, the other guys kind of back up a little bit.”

Harden began his career doing that, coming off the bench while Westbrook and Durant were Oklahoma City’s signature stars. He was NBA Sixth Man of the Year then, but his game flourished with each layer of responsibility he assumed with the Rockets, first under Kevin McHale and then at another level as the “points guard” under D’Antoni.

Harden has been the MVP or runner-up in four of the past five seasons and last season produced one of the most prolific offensive campaigns in NBA history. The Rockets are not about to ask him to dial anything back.

“He’s evolved,” Westbrook said. “Obviously, tremendously learned other ways to score the basketball. Playmaking skills have always been there. But just like that, learning how to carry a team, understand what it takes to … win at a high level.”

Westbrook also has won a scoring title, but his greatness has been built on an ability to do many things at an elite level, taking the almost unthinkable achievement of averaging a triple-double and making it assumed in his three consecutive seasons averaging double-digit points, rebounds and assists. That wide-ranging collection of talents, Westbrook said, will allow him to fit in as needed.

“I can pass the basketball,” Westbrook said. “I’m the best rebounder at my position. I can screen. I can cut. I can do whatever I need to do to help us win. I can talk, communicate. There’s so many different things in the game.

“I don’t really care about (scoring), as long as we win. That’s the most important part. If James has it going, I’ll sit there and watch. No problem with me. It doesn’t matter who scores, how many points they score. As long as the Houston Rockets are scoring and … winning, that’s all I care about.”

Harden has often made similar proclamations. He and Westbrook might play together roughly 22 to 24 minutes per game, with D’Antoni planning to keep a star point guard on the floor at all times. The goal, however, is for both to feel free to dominate in their way even when playing together.

“When I’m feeling it, my entire team is going to gas me up,” Harden said. “They’re going to be like, ‘Keep going.’ So when Russ is feeling it, I’m going to gas him up. ‘Keep going. Do what you do. Do what’s gotten you to this point in your career.’ Like when Eric is getting it going, hitting 3s and getting to the basket, that’s what we need, and that’s the kind of team we’re going to have.

“When somebody’s got it going, keep gassing them up, keep boosting them up. We try to build it up.”

The challenge is to avoid taking turns. That has often been the issue when stars become teammates, from the first season with James and Dwyane Wade in Miami to even the first half of last season with Kawhi Leonard and Kyle Lowry in Toronto. The best players help not only the role players around them but one another. The Raptors still relied heavily on Leonard on the way to the NBA championship, but the offense became far more cohesive on the way to the title.

“Taking turns is something you don’t want to do,” D’Antoni said. “That’s like an All-Star Game. ‘I’ll watch him play because he’s so good, and then he’ll watch me play.’ We try to avoid that. It takes awhile to get over that.

“I’ll be honest with you. The leadership that James has shown so far and Russ and everybody else, it’s been impressive. That heartens me the most. Their focus is not on James and Russ playing together, not on teaming up superstars. They’re focused on winning a championship. If they can keep that, then we’ll have a good shot. It can be really good.”

Harden and Westbrook could benefit from their differences, like a hard-throwing righthander coming in after a lefty throwing breaking balls. Harden described Westbrook as “way more athletic” and said he plays “two or three times faster.” But beyond the advantages that come with different styles and the issues of perhaps of making their skills mesh without diminishing either, theirs in not an arranged marriage.

They wanted this and have celebrated their reunion since it came together in a July rush. The previous pairings of MVPs have brought mixed results, but the potential was always as clear as the only way Harden and Westbrook can realize it.

“At the end of the day, we need each other,” Harden said. “This thing won’t work without each other.”