In the Sixers’ victory tonight against Chicago, James Harden shone more with his playmaking than his scoring and left the spotlight to his friend Joel Embiid, author of a new masterclass. However, the Bearded will still remember this evening because he just tied Reggie Miller for the most 3-pointers scored in his career.
2,560. Since the start of his NBA career in 2009, James Harden has planted 2,560 award-winning shots, the third most in Big League history. Equaling the legendary Reggie Miller in the field of 3-pointers is still not a feat you achieve every day and we imagine that the Bearded went to celebrate it as it should be in the most popular strip club in Philly. As a symbol, it was on a small family step-back – his signature move – that Harden took his place on the podium of the most prolific shooters in history, alongside the former Pacers sniper. He even had three full quarters to overtake him but Ramesse will have to wait until the next game to take this third place alone. Then, he can officially aim for the second, now occupied by mister Ray Allen. Jesus Shuttlesworth finished his career with 2,973 award-winning shots, which still leaves him a nice little cushion ahead of Harden (413) but beware, the Bearded really has the fangs since his arrival at the Sixers a few weeks ago. Stephen Curry, first in the rankings since this season and considered the greatest sniper in the history of the game, obviously seems untouchable (3,101 at the time of these lines) but we cannot exclude a scenario where we find Steph in head with Harden behind in a few years.
Unlike Reggie Miller, Ray Allen and Stephen Curry, James Harden was never really considered a pure shooter. A great scorer yes, a real sniper, no. Gossips will say that if the Bearded man finds himself on the podium today, it’s mainly because it was open bar for him in Houston and he could attempt as many 3-point step-backs as he could. wanted (more than 13 award-winning shots attempted on average during the 2018-19 season!). There is truth in this argument because the back of the Sixers does indeed have the lowest percentage of success among the quartet with 36.3% in career, while Miller / Allen are around 40% and Steph at almost 43% . But that doesn’t take anything away from Ramesse’s feat. 2,560 award shots is 2,560 award shots. To carry an attack on his shoulders every night as he did for years in Houston, to have the energy to chain 3-point attempts and above all to return them to a percentage which remains respectable all the same (a little more than 36% with nine attempts on average over his entire career in Houston), this is clearly not given to everyone. And let’s not forget that while Curry has four of the six most prolific seasons in terms of 3-pointers scored, it is Harden who has the other two with 378 shots from the parking lot in 2018-19 (second total all-time behind Curry’s 402) and 299 in the shortened 2019-20 season.
James Harden is one of the greatest forwards in history, and finding himself on the podium of the best 3-point shooters – along with Stephen Curry, Ray Allen and Reggie Miller – is an additional argument for him. And no matter how it got there.
