Watch: James Harden’s Agent Reveals the Exact Moment When “The Beard” Invented His Signature “Step Back” Shot

Every NBA star has his own signature move that would have impressed the fans. LeBron James has his thunderous dunk, Stephen Curry with his ‘Turnaround’ three pointer, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with his ‘Sky hook’. Similarly, Philadelphia 76ers star James Harden holds the ‘Step back’ shot as his signature move. Notably, the star introduced the shot almost a decade into his career and his agent recently revealed the origin story of the shot in a podcast.

The Beard has had a shaky journey in his NBA career over the last few years. In the span of three years, the star has played for three franchises. Additionally, he is actively looking jump to the fourth team throughout this offseason. While the player had issues with cementing his place in a particular team, he clearly had no issues with his performances on the court. He produced several remarkable plays throughout his shaky journey and the Step back shot played a huge role in it.

James Harden’s agent narrates the origin story of ‘Step Back’ shot

James Harden has proved himself to be a generational talent and his stats stands as a proof. The star had his break out season in 2018-19 edition where he averaged 36.1 points, eventually winning the MVP trophy. Importantly, on the same year, he discovered his signature move, says Troy Payne, Harden’s agent.

Payne joined for a podcast conversation with Switch Cultures and revealed the origin story for the Step Back shot. The host asked the agent if he’d remember the year when it started. Even though he was unsure, he zeroed in on 2019. Following that he went to narrate the story. He said, “The step back started at Arizona State during the summer…  Harden did the move and said, is this a travel? I said, hell yeah it’s a travel.” After that Payne revealed that Harden countered it with a jump shot and justified his shot. Once he was convinced, he revealed that Harden worked on perfecting it.

Furthermore, Payne revealed how argumentative Harden was. He said, “We call him J lawyer, he’s a arguer.”

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While the trade saga started with Harden and Damian Lillard, now several other players have also joined the lot.

Offseason trade fiasco

Dame and Harden openly expressed their wish to change team after the playoffs, but yet to find their teams. Meanwhile several other players like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, and Donovan Mitchell have come into the trade conversation. Moreover, an expert even predicted that either of three players would get traded within a year’s time.

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What do you make of the origin story of Harden’s Step back shot? Let us know in the comments.