Alijah Arenas enjoys the rare advantage of having two highly regarded NBA stars to guide him. One is certainly his father, Gilbert Arenas. Although the retired NBA player’s one trick has kept his son from defeating him in 1v1, he has constantly been steering support for Alijah. Fortunately, the 6’4 guard has another special person with whom he shares a somewhat similar relationship as Arenas and he is grateful for it.

And why shouldn’t he? Be it sitting courtside or from afar, The Beard shows massive support for Alijah. When the 16-year-old was asked about his bond with the 3× NBA scoring champion, Alijah only had sweet words. “As a person, that’s the guy I want to be around all day like from sun up- sun down. His personality is amazing, he’s a great person, he does like great things for everybody and then for me it was just kind of like almost like a father figure type of guy like he was,” he said.

Alijah poured a stream of praise upon James Harden, whose workout sessions, playing style, and hard work have had an impact on him. It’s safe to say that he is closely watching Harden’s games. He added, “It was always a teaching moment it was always a fun moment it was always a learning experience… He’ll check up on me like he’s just a great dude,” Alijah shared on the Youngins Sports Podcast.

Just recently, the Chatsworth guard had praise for the Clippers’ veteran on his incredible record.

“History!!!” Alijah wrote on his IG story, along with a post highlighting Harden’s new record. Surpassing Ray Allen’s 2,973, the Clippers veteran is the second player on the 3-pointers record list. With 3,004, Harden is right behind Stephen Curry, to have over 3,000 three-pointers. And as the NBA veteran explains, he sees similar potential in the rising star too.

James Harden’s bestowed high praise upon Alijah Arenas

Harden was present at the recent game where Alijah went head-to-head against the son of Trevor Ariza at the 2024 Westside Tip-Off Classic High School Basketball Tournament. The five-star small forward Tajh plays for Westchester. While Ariza scored 14 points to help his high school team, Arenas dropped 25 points to lead Chatsworth to victory.

When Harden was asked about the former Golden State Warriors’ star, he lauded his performance. “I seen Alijah this summer, and he just kinda reminded me of myself in the sense that he played against pros as a junior in high school, and that’s how you get better. You learn physicality, you learn skill set, and what you gotta get to,” Harden said. 

Offering the 16-year-old to reach out for a conversation, the Los Angeles Clippers star shared how Arenas’ son reminded him of his younger self. He added, “I just spoke to him and said, ‘If you ever need anything, reach out, we can communicate. We’ve done a couple of times. He’s just a true student of the game.”

Arenas is one of the top prospects in the 2026 class. He has been told that his game is similar to Jamal Crawford’s and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s. And he is quite close enough to defeating his father if only Agent Zero stopped ducking. And if he indeed resembles Harden’s playing style a bit, you know what to expect.