James Harden has long used the step-back jumper as one of his signature moves. Now Patrick Beverley is claiming he was the inspiration.
Patrick Beverley is best known for his aggressive, dogged defense but shameless self-promotion may actually be his most elite skill. Between his propensity for conjuring beef out of thin air and relentless trash talk, he’s been able to keep himself near the center of the NBA conversation for most of his career, despite filling a niche mostly as a role player.
To hear him tell it, he’s the best offensive-rebounding point guard in NBA history, the Lakers traded him because he wanted out not because he was ineffective, he’s still one of the best defenders in the NBA, Chris Paul (at his peak) couldn’t guard anyone and an Oklahoma City Thunder ball boy threatened to kill him after he injured Russell Westbrook.
Oh, and he was the inspiration for the signature offensive move of James Harden
Why does Patrick Beverley think he inspired James Harden?
Over the past decade, the step-back jumper has become a ubiquitous offensive move in the arsenal of NBA lead-creators. Perhaps no one is more closely associated with the shot than James Harden — particularly during the 2018-19 season when he launched an NBA-record 1028 3-point attempts, about 140 more than any other player has ever attempted in NBA history.
According to Beverley, Harden got the idea from him.
Harden and Beverley have known each other since high school and were teammates for five years with the Houston Rockets. We only have tracking data for the final four of those seasons, but during that stretch, Beverley was 125-of-370 (33.4 percent) on all pull-up jumpers. If he really was the inspiration for Harden it certainly wasn’t because he offered compelling evidence it was an unstoppable shot.
There’s really only one appropriate response for this claim from Beverley.
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