James Harden has gone beyond the point of trying to prove anything. Since he entered the professional basketball scene in 2009, he has taken the league by storm and received enough awards to be praised by fans and basketball legends, dead or alive. The Point Guard, who was a constant in the NBA All-Star Game from 2013 to 2018, can definitely no longer leave any doubt about his immense talent.
James Harden has it all: guts, raw power, and of course the ability to score goals. For the latter, he became particularly well known when he joined the Houston Rockets in 2012. In his last season on the Sun Devils basketball team at Arizona State University, he was also a unanimous All-American and Pac-10 Player of the Year. In 2012, when he was still on the books at Oklahoma City Thunder, he was named the sixth man of the year in the NBA. He is also a gold medalist of the United States National Basketball Team.
James Harden Bio (Age)
Harden, the youngest of three children, was born on August 23, 1989, in Los Angeles, California. During his time at Artesia High School in Lakewood, he was able to improve his statistics every season and led the team to the California state title in the junior and senior classes. He was named All-American by McDonald’s and also received the honor of the second All-American team.
In his first year at Arizona State University, Harden helped Sun Devil’s draw for fifth place at the Pac-10 Conference with 17.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.2 assist averages. Because of his efforts, he was appointed to the purely fresh team of the conference. James finished his second season with an average of 20.1 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 4.2 assists. He also scored a career win of 40 points in his team’s victory over the UTEP Miners and was on the cover of the college basketball issue of Sports Illustrated. After also being called to the All-Pac 10 tournament team and being named Player of the Year at the Pacific-10 Conference at the end of his second season, Harden declared for the 2009 NBA Draft, using Rob Pelinka as his agent.
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James Harden Professional Career
1. Oklahoma City Thunders
Harden continued to break personal and team records with the Thunders after joining them as the third overall candidate in the 2009 NBA Draft. He achieved a season-high of 26 points in his first two seasons with the team and a season-high of 40 points from a reserve role in his third and final season. In his first season, he tried and scored seven consecutive three-point finishes in two games, making him the first rookie since Michael Dickerson in 1999 to do so. At the end of his first season, he was appointed to the second NBA All-Rookie Team.
Harden was named the sixth man of the year in the 2011-2012 NBA season after scoring an average of 16.8 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 3.7 assists in a total of 62 games, of which he only started two. In his last season, he helped the Thunders advance to the NBA finals, where they lost to Miami Heat. During the 2012 FTA period, James Harden failed to agree to a four-year $55 million contract extension with the team, which later revealed that he was not given enough time to consider the offer.
2. Houston Rockets
On October 31, 2012, James Harden put a five-year deal for $80 million with the Houston Rockets on paper. On the same day, he made his debut and became the first NBA player in history to achieve a statistic of 37 points, 12 assists, 6 rebounds, 4 steals, and 1 block in his debut game. In his second game, James also scored 45 points, bringing his total score to 82 points, a first in NBA history. He scored his first triple-double (21 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists) against Charlotte Bobcats on 2 February 2013, and eighteen days later, in a win over his former team, he reached his first career highlight with 46 points. Harden’s efforts earned him several Player of the Week awards and his first All-Star selection as a reserve in the 2013 NBA All-Star Game.
In his second campaign with the Rockets, Harden was named “Western Conference Player of the Week” for two consecutive weeks between February and March. He also achieved a season-high of 43 points in a victory over the Sacramento Kings. Harden was again named as a reserve for the 2014 NBA All-Star Game and was later promoted to a reserve starter for the All-Star Game. At the end of the campaign, he was appointed to the All-NBA First Team.
In the 2014-2015 season, James Harden was the first player in the history of the NBA to score 50 points twice in a single season and lead his team to the premier league in just over twenty years. He maintained his position on the NBA All-Star Team (until 2018) and the All-NBA First Team. Harden also narrowly missed the honor of the NBA MVP finishing second behind Golden State Warrior Stephen Curry.
In the 2015-2016 season, James Harden was the first player ever in the NBA to score at least 450 points, 152 assists and 102 rebounds in a single month of a campaign. He also usurped Artis Gilmore’s top position for the number of sales in a single season. At the end of the campaign, Harden also joined the ranks of Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, and LeBron James as the only NBA player ever to achieve a seasonal average of at least 29 points, 7.5 assists, and 6 rebounds in a season.
In 2016 Harden signed a hefty new four-year $118 million contract with the Rockets and continued to break records. He scored triple-double passes in four consecutive games and won several Player of the Month and Player of the Week awards at the Western Conference, cementing Hakeem Olajuwon’s franchise history. Harden finished the 2016-2017 season with 22 triple-doubles and over 2000 points, making him the first franchise player ever to do so.
He started the 2017-2018 season with another four-year contract for $160 million, bringing his total volume to a six-year contract with a guaranteed value of $228 million. This season he was the first franchise player to score 20 points or more in his team’s first 30 games. He also scored a career highlight of 56 points in a win over Utah Jazz, and in January 2018 he became the first franchise player to score 60 points in a triple-double win over Orlando Magic. On the last day of 2017, James suffered a Class 2 hamstring injury in a game against the Los Angeles Lakers after scoring 40 points. He was on the road for two weeks. James Harden finished the season with an average of 30.4 points, giving him his first goalscoring title.
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The point guard also represented the US national basketball team at the 2012 Olympic Games – where they won gold – and at the 201 FIBA Basketball World Championships.
Does James Harden have a girlfriend or wife?
It’s not clear what his dating profile was before his romance with Khloe Kardashian, who has a reputation as an NBA wrecking ball. Coincidentally, James suffered a dent in his progress during his appointment with the Kardashian. He would finally stop it in 2016.
Although he has not publicly confirmed the rumors, the NBA star is rumored to be dating the famous R&B singer Ashanti, who split with her rapper-boo Nelly in 2012. The singer was spotted together with James in a hotel in Houston and with his family at some of his games.
Net worth
The Shooting Guard is sure to make a lot more money over the course of his career, especially considering his recent contract extension, which is the largest in the history of the NBA franchise. He also signed a 13-year sponsorship agreement with Adidas for $200 million in 2015, with Celebrity Net Worth estimating his annual salary at $40 million and net assets at $120 million.
James Harden’s Height and Weight
Jaden’s exploding success is due more to his technical skills than to his size, but one cannot say that his size has nothing to do with it. James stands at 1.96 m (6 feet 5 inches) and weighs 100 kg (200 lbs).
