James Harden is one of the most renowned NBA players around and is also a bit of a style icon because of his lengthy beard. Indeed, the Philadephia 76ers shooting guard has got one of the most recognizable facial hairstyles in the world of sport and developed a great reputation for himself by just letting his beard grow out.
Harden is widely recognized as one of the greatest scorers and shooting guards in the history of the NBA. The 33-year-old has been actively playing in the NBA since 2009 after boasting an impressive college basketball career.
He started out his NBA career with the Oklahoma City Thunder and spent three years with them, breaking through the ranks as a highly-rated rookie in the NBA. Harden went on to join the Houston Rockets in 2012 and spent the majority of his career so far with them. He was an NBA All-Star Team member in almost every single season he spent with the Rockets but was unable to win them the NBA title.
Harden also bagged the prestigious NBA MVP (Most Valuable Player ) award in 2018 and was also the NBA Assists Leader for the 2017 season. The 33-year-old Basketball star averaged an amazing 36.1 points per game in the 2018/19 season with the Rockets but saw them fall in the 2019 NBA Playoffs to the Golden State Warriors
Amid his highly successful years, first with the Houston Rockets before joining the New York Nets for a season and then moving to the Philadelphia 76ers, something that has remained constant in Harden’s life is his beard.
The evolution of James Harden’s glorious beard
It’s not like James Harden has always had his iconic beard on his face. It actually took him a lot of years to grow enough facial hair and he probably had to use a lot of beard oils and self-care items for his facial hair to look so fabulous.
Harden started growing his beard from the start of his NBA stint. For one, he had very little facial hair in his stint with the Oklahoma City Thunder and only started to grow a bunch of hair on his face after joining the Rockets.
With every season he started to grow as an NBA superstar with Houston, he started to don a bigger facial hairstyle as well. By the time he became one of the very best in the NBA and competed for the MVP titles, Harden’s facial hair had fully grown into the brilliant thing it is today.
Harden has not shaved his hair since and probably uses a lot of self-care products to ensure that the hair stays the way it is right now.
Shocking pictures of James Harden without a beard
Harden was not born with his iconic beard and it’s not like he was indifferent in his teenage years either. When he was coming through the high school and college basketball scene, Harden did not have any facial hair.
Indeed, during his time with the Arizona State University College team, Harden started to get a lot of attention from NBA scouts. He also did not have a beard at that stage of his life and did not look as muscular or bulky as he does nowadays either.
Harden was clean-shaven during his university days and also had very little beard hair at the start of his basketball career as well. Even though this might be unnerving for some, there was indeed some time when the Basketball star had no beard at all and looked completely different than what he does right now.
What does Harden have to say about trimming his beard?
The 33-year-old NBA shooting guard is very protective of his beard and has not cut it down completely in over a decade now. He might do the occasional trim but has never gone clean-shaven or to a very short beard since gaining prominence in the Basketball scene.
Harden is adamant that he will not be trimming his beard anytime soon and has been very clear with his answers to repeated questions on what it would take him to cut his beard. In 2013, he was asked about it first to which he said it’ll take way more than $80,000 to get him to cut the beard.
In 2018, Harden was also asked the same question on exactly what he’d be likely to accept in order to be convinced to trim down his facial hair. He said: “Oh yea, I would cut it. I mean because it’s going to grow right back. Yeah, $10 million minimum is where I am like ‘alright.”
In Harden’s defense, none of his fans actually want him to go clean-shaven again and one of the main reasons behind their love for him is his brilliant beard. The 33-year-old beard is one of the reasons behind him being so popular around the world and if he reverts back to his college football looks, then Harden possibly risks losing a whole lot of fans as well.
