James Harden and Dwight Howard address whether Harden belongs in the NBA's top ten

A few days ago, we talked about the twitter spat that Kevin Durant and Dwyane Wade over whether Wade or Rockets guard James Harden belongs in the top ten of an arbitrary ranking of players. It's all pretty stupid, but in the offseason, it's pretty fun to discuss.

Today at the Rockets' media day, Harden joined the conversation, saying that he definitely felt like he belonged in the top ten. Here's what Harden had to say to CSN Houston:

For sure. For sure. Last year, I had a chance to prove it. Kind of broke out of my shell a little bit.

He didn't say where he thought he stood in relation to Wade, but he seemed pretty darn confident in himself. And when Dwight Howard was asked to weigh in on it, he was fairly diplomatic:

What I told James is, stay away from it. We do our talking on the floor. We'll play both those teams, and when we do, show them who's the best shooting guard in the world.

But when pressed on the question, he gave an unequivocal "no doubt" on whether Harden was a top ten player. "He has the ability to be one of the best shooting guards to ever play the game," he added.

Sounds like someone who has learned how to handle a media circus.