Let us know how did James Harden look when he had no beard
Whenever we hear the name of the celebrated James Harden, we remember a prolific Shooting guard and Point guard who has set his legacy strong in the NBA, and we definitely remember the iconic beard that he has been nicknamed after.
There was a time in his earlier basketball days when he had no beard to when he grew a slight one with a subtle moustache. The beard we see today hadn’t taken shape until at least 2011 so what did this superstar NBA player look like before?
The confident full-bearded James Harden we see today naturally has not always been the same. So let’s dig deeper into his athletic evolution along with his trademark beard.
Harden’s magic on the basketball court blossomed soon enough in his high school and by 2009 he had gathered quite the crowd’s attention. The 32-year-old Compton born in his childhood days attended the Artesia High School in California where he led his school to back-to-back basketball state championships.
During these years, he kept a clean shaved beard with no facial hair except of course his eyebrows lashes, and sideburns. This was also when he played championships among many remarkable future NBA players.
James Harden had once accounted that he never really started growing out his beard with anything in mind. He simply had gotten lazy and didn’t maintain his habit of trimming and shaving regularly. But when he did, during his early professional basketball years during his time in Arizona State and during his 2009 NBA Draft, he sported a subtle moustache and a goatee, apart from which everything was clean-shaved. And the fans did in fact admire the youthful man with his subtle and fresh facial hair.
This evolved into a more corporate look when Harden started carrying a light pencil moustache and his goatee. It was this very look that transformed into the heavier statement look he sports today. He even had days where he’d shave the moustache for the subtle beard on his chin to show.
There was a time in his early basketball years including his college basketball years when the player simply sported a trimmed beard that complemented his face and he didn’t even have to put much effort after.
However, it wasn’t long, before he started carrying a light handsome stubble also referred to as the 10-day beard. It gave his face a sharp chiselled look with a prominent jawline and great appeal.
This light stubble went onto a heavier stubble. This was also surprising Harden’s time when his performance in the court went from admirable to starstruck. In fact, there are many who correlated growing out his beard to his leap in performance. Thus his nickname isn’t very surprising when we come to this parallel.
The full beard we see today started showing its colors around 2011 when Harden was playing with Oklahoma City Thunder. And the moment he embraced his full beard, his performance too skyrocketed marvellously setting his course to become one of the biggest NBA legends we know today. We believe it is due to the complete hormonal and physical changes he went through which let him shine his athletic prowess to his fullest.
Thus this was the journey of James Harden with no beard to the full beard that he wears today and also his growth from a locally appreciated basketball player to an internationally admired NBA professional.
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