LA Clippers guard James Harden has several distinct chapters in his Hall of Fame NBA career. 

Selected third overall in the 2009 NBA draft, Harden became a Sixth Man of the Year in Oklahoma City. Traded to Houston in 2012 with just seven career NBA starts under his belt, Harden began a historic nine-year run that included three-straight scoring titles and an MVP award.

Continuing his career evolution, Harden showed off arguably his most polished form in 80 games for the Brooklyn Nets. An all-around maestro, Harden averaged 23/11/8 in Brooklyn, and might be an NBA champion right now had that team not been cursed with all-time bad luck.

Onto Philadelphia, Harden further adapted his game to fit the players around him, leading the NBA in assists for the second time in his career. Now in Los Angeles, Harden is in some ways a version of all his previous stops. But now with 15 years of experience and perspective that is shaping this last chapter of his career.

Speaking exclusively with Clippers On SI, Harden opened up about his NBA career, the legacy he is working to leave, and how he wants people to understand him as a human being.

One of the NBA’s biggest stars the last decade-plus, Harden has been active off the court with different partnerships and business ventures. At this stage of his career, the 16-year veteran sees this as an opportunity to show who he really is.

Set to star in a 2025 Super Bowl ad for Pringles, Harden is joined by fellow mustached celebrities Andy Reid and Nick Offerman for the “Call of the Mustaches” campaign. Whether it’s starring in a Super Bowl commercial, going on yearly China tours with Adidas, or seeing fans travel across the world to watch him play, Harden is humbled by the level of superstardom basketball has allowed him to achieve.

“Honestly, I’m so humbled by it,” Harden said. “I cherish it and I want to make sure the fans and people that come see me, or I come across whether it’s a fan or a partnership, I want them to understand that James is a real human being. I don’t want to ever put myself above anybody, whether it’s a fan, whether it’s any encounter I come across. That’s my mindset.”

This is the mindset Harden brought into his partnership with Pringles, wanting to impress the team that sought him out for this opportunity.

“The Pringles team, I really didn’t know them,” Harden added. “So when I had the opportunity to meet them and do the whole commercial thing, I wanted to impress them. To where they understand James is one of the coolest, if they look at me as a superstar, that we’ve ever come across. Same thing as a fan. I just wanna make sure that I leave that impact on as many people as I can.”

At his core, this is who Harden has been his entire career. While cameras don’t catch it every time, Harden is one of the league’s most fan-friendly players.

While he knows this about himself, Harden also knows he’s been one of the NBA’s most criticized players since his rise to superstardom. This has often been basketball-related criticism that most stars experience, but it’s also included more personal attacks like the two-minute viral rant a Dallas Mavericks analyst directed at him last season.

Whether it’s critics being adamant his stepback is a travel, or the more cruel attacks on his career and character, Harden is unbothered by it all.

“It always never bothered me,” Harden said of the criticism he’s faced throughout his career. “Like, you don’t really see me go back and forth with a reporter or somebody on TV or the internet. I just continue to chip away, put the work in, put the work in, put the work in, and that’s just how I am.”

Harden added, “It really doesn’t bother me. And then hopefully, eventually, people will catch on later to who I am and what my message really was. Which I think they’re starting to understand it now.”

Fans calling Harden’s stepback a travel isn’t just an example that made sense for this article. It’s something he specifically mentioned when speaking about his critics:

“Even when the stepback or the double stepback or whatever you call it was being put into play, it was so many people around the world: ‘He’s traveling. He’s traveling.’ Now you see it around the world six, seven years later. So it’s like, people might not catch onto it right away, but eventually later down the road, they’ll catch on. That’s the kind of person I am. Which is unique.”

While it may have taken longer into his career than it should have, it seems people are starting to catch onto who James Harden really is. Different narratives have persisted about his work ethic and motivation, but as the 35-year-old guard quietly keeps an undermanned Clippers team firmly in the Western Conference playoff mix, more people are taking notice of the leadership that has always been there.

Named to his 11th All-Star team last week, Harden was given the much-deserved honor he missed out on two seasons ago.

“I’ve been on the other side where I led the league in assists and didn’t make it,” Harden said prior to his selection. “So it would be an honor to me. I would love be a part of the team.”

Harden’s numbers not only justified the selection, but his ability to lead the Clippers through more than two months without Kawhi Leonard exceeded even the more optimistic preseason predictions for this team. Along the way, Harden has achieved some of the NBA’s most exclusive milestones, including becoming second on the all-time three-pointers list.

Growing up in Los Angeles, Harden knows the history of his current organization. Widely deemed the worst franchise in sports prior to Steve Ballmer’s arrival, the Clippers were synonymous with not just failure, but embarrassment.

Understanding this, Harden takes pride in not only ascending up all-time NBA lists, but doing it in a Clippers jersey.

“It means a lot,” Harden said of reaching numerous historic NBA milestones with the Clippers. “I don’t know if there has been another one that has come through this organization. I don’t mean to brag, but I don’t think they have.”

The Clippers have had Hall of Fame players come through their organization, and some reached significant milestones while there. But considering his role on the team, and the milestones he’s reached in LA, Harden feels he in many ways stands alone in Clippers history. An honor he values highly, and a responsibility he carries daily.

“And so for me, what goes in the back of my mind when I step in that gym every single day is building culture,” Harden said. “Building something special. Because once I leave and retire from being a Clipper, hopefully that culture can continue leading to something special.”

What does that look like?

“Coming in, being a professional, working my butt off every single day, being a leader,” Harden added. “Just all those things, all those great qualities that I bring. Hopefully I can kind of mold that, because the organization is already in the right direction.”

Harden wants to retire a Clipper. He said it during his first season in LA, and that desire has only grown.

“Yeah,” Harden said in January, 2024 when asked if he wants to finish his career with the Clippers. “That was the whole point, man. I thought the same thing with the last team I was on. That’s why I made all those sacrifices. I’m here home, I want to be able to keep a core together for a few years… Things are going well and I’m happy.”

Harden has undoubtedly helped elevate the Clippers franchise, particularly this season, but he knows the most important change happened in 2014. 

“Obviously, Steve takes over the team,” Harden said. “He has an arena. He got some excitement around the team. Which honestly, since Blake (Griffin) and Chris Paul and that Lob City era, and the excitement with Darius Miles and Quentin Richardson, there hasn’t really been a lot of excitement around the Clippers. So bringing that energy back to the Clippers. That’s my thought process.”

Harden has done this on the court, but he’s also done it off the court. Heavily involved in the community throughout his NBA career, Harden says it hits different now that he’s home in LA.

“It just hits different,” Harden said. “I’ve always been very, very big in the community. Obviously Houston and then even some in Brooklyn and Philly. And then now this, being from LA it hits different.”

Los Angeles has a long road ahead to recover from the devastating wildfires that impacted so many people, but Harden wants to help lead the rebuild effort in whatever ways he can.

“We wanna get on top of that and figure out ways to help the city out, because it’s much needed,” Harden said. “Whether it’s refurbishing courts to help kids get out and hoop, and get out on these playgrounds or whatever the case may be. I’m willing to do it. Me being here for only a year, I feel like we got a lot of work to do, but we’re up for the task.”

This is who James Harden is. As he continues writing this final chapter of his career with the Clippers, he hopes people begin to understand that.

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