James Harden is closing in on Carmelo Anthony for No. 10 on the all-time scoring list.
James Harden, on the NBA’s top-10 all-time scoring list? After pondering that for a moment the other day, his response was the same as what his body language tells defenders while breaking their ankles with a crossover:
“Get outta here.”
You see, Harden wasn’t supposed to keep company with Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant and LeBron James and other scoring greats who got buckets by the bucketful. Because:
- He came off the bench his first three seasons.
- He spent his entire NBA career on the ground, not in the air.
- And his body, according to the armchair fitness experts, wasn’t designed to hold up this long — now 17 seasons and counting — and longevity is a prerequisite for membership on any all-time list.
But here he is, after nudging his way among the 10 and officially certifying his ticket to legendary status. Plenty has happened since the beard grew thick, all of it punctuated by points. His ability to create space, shoot the 3-pointer, get into the paint for floaters and cleverly draw contact for fouls all made him among the greatest scorers of this — and now any — generation.
Yet, he’s still processing all of that.
“No way,” he said. “No way that I got the opportunity to be a part of this list. Man, it’s literally like a dream come true, all the work that I put in, coming to fruition. So many things this game has done for you, and I’m sure for those guys as well. Those names are still being talked about post basketball. It’s an honor to be a part of that.”
Harden has led the league in scoring three times, which he did for three straight years when he averaged 30-plus points in each. He’s also second on the all-time 3-pointers made list after Stephen Curry. His style agrees and identifies with his era, where the floor is spaced and isolation plays constantly run. Harden mastered the technique of space creation and taking his man off the dribble, and his passing — he’s a two-time assists leader — made it tricky for teams choosing to double-team him.
Those teams had to pick their poison, or very often, Harden would choose for them.
JAMES HARDEN HAS MOVED INTO THE TOP 10 SCORERS OF ALL-TIME 🚨 pic.twitter.com/6GdUodN1HA
— NBA (@NBA) December 7, 2025
At his peak, from 2017-20, he was almost impossible to guard 1-on-1. Those years in Houston, as the centerpiece of the offense designed by coach Mike D’Antoni and tailored to Harden’s skills, he was a force. Harden constantly had the ball and the green light.
But it wasn’t like this from the start of his career. He was the No. 3 overall draft pick in 2009 who had the fortune, or maybe misfortune from a scoring standpoint, of joining an Oklahoma City team with a young Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.
Both teammates would eventually lead the league in scoring multiple times; Durant is No. 8 on the all-time scoring list and Westbrook should crack the top 15 this season.
OKC went to the NBA Finals two years later and the Thunder were seemingly set to be a fixture among championship contenders. But with Durant and Westbrook locked in as the 1-2 options, Harden was initially a role player — a stunning designation in retrospect — who averaged less than 10 points his rookie season and just 12 in his second.
In his first three seasons combined, all with OKC, Harden scored 2,795 points. By comparison, he had 2,818 in one season (2018-19) alone.
“I don’t know about the others on the top 10 list, but I remember when KD came in, LeBron (James) came in, all those guys came in averaging something like 27 and I was literally a sixth man,” Harden said.
The turning point, and it was sharp and sudden, was the summer of 2012 when OKC, flush with young talent, hesitated to give Harden — again, a sixth man although a solid one — a max extension. His description now of what came next is simple and direct:
“Life changing.”
Yes, Harden being traded to Houston and getting his own stage and being aligned with D’Antoni was a development that created a legend. Suddenly, Harden became an NBA commodity. The trademark beard, the highlights that went viral and stockpiled ankle-broken victims — sorry, Wesley Johnson — and the constant buckets took him to another level in every way.
Suppose he never left OKC?
“You do think about what could’ve happened,” he said. “I probably wouldn’t be able to be who I am, creating an entire James Harden line; I’m on my 10th signature shoe. All that probably wouldn’t have happened if I stayed there. I probably would have a championship, though. Who knows?”
And this — suppose Harden was groomed in Houston by a coach other than D’Antoni, who once authored a scheme where his teams were instructed to shoot in 7 seconds or less once the ball crossed mid court?
“Oh my God,” Harden said. “He’s a genius. I don’t think he gets enough credit for revolutionizing the game of basketball, doing things that teams are doing now. He was doing that before with the Suns and then with us in Houston.”
In one way, Harden wasn’t built, literally, for top-10 status. He’s 6-foot-5 and somewhat blocky. He’s not wiry and never able to soar eyeball level to the rim. He rarely dunked, then or now.
“I look at this list and all those guys are way bigger than me, way more athletic than me,” he said. “The only 2 guards are Kobe and Jordan, and they were flying. That’s another reason why I’m proud of myself because I’ve had to figure out how to maneuver around people.”
Harden needed weapons, which he sharpened and used unapologetically. Three, in particular: The 3-point shot, the step-back and the crossover. Which one is most responsible for putting him in the top-10?
“The step-back,” he said. That’s where Harden fakes as though he’ll drive to the hoop, then quickly shuffles backward to create space between his defender to launch the shot.
“The separation,” he said. “Now I feel I have an advantage to where, if you’re too far away, I can shoot it or get by you, score or make the pass. I’m still putting on that move.”
He is amused by the legacy and the evolution of the devastating offensive move.
“When I got started making it, I don’t know if you remember, but they’d say, `He’s traveling, he’s traveling.’ Now everyone’s doing it. You created something and it takes a while and now it’s like, even young kids are doing it. I’m not saying I created something but I definitely took it to another level.”
And he’s still at a reasonably high level, definitely for his age; Harden is averaging 27 points at 36 and on his fifth team. Not being very athletic has perhaps contributed to his longevity; Harden’s limbs have been spared from years of jumping constantly.
“We think he’s doing too much (practice work) but it’s his routine since he’s been in the league,” said Clippers coach Ty Lue, “preparing his body, keeping himself ready to go. And he loves to hoop. He loves to be out there.”
And how much longer will Harden be out there? That could have implications for his final place on the top 10. Harden should overtake Shaquille O’Neal (28,596) this season for ninth. He has averaged roughly 1,400 points in each of the last three seasons, and at that pace could catch Wilt Chamberlain (seventh) and maybe Dirk Nowitzki (sixth) in the next few years.
Harden shook his head.
“I was just a kid who grew up watching Kobe, to where I’m shooting Kobe fadeaway 3s,” he said. “I’m blessed and grateful. If I get the opportunity to keep going, I will keep going. I’m just taking it one year at a time.”
Lue doesn’t see why not.
“I mean, for him, it doesn’t rely off athleticism, speed, dunking the basketball, so the way he shoots, the way he gets guys off the dribble to get to his spot, I think he can play for a while,” Lue said.
One last question for Harden: Was there ever a game or a season or a time when he believed the ball was going in, no matter what?
“I feel like that still,” he said.
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Shaun Powell has covered the NBA since 1985. You can e-mail him at spowell@nba.com, find his archive here and follow him on X.
