James Harden Sent Marcus Smart Flying With A Disgusting Crossover Then Threw Up An Awful Brick

The 2022 NBA season kicked off on Tuesday night with a matchup between the Philadelphia 76ers and the reigning conference champs, the Boston Celtics. The two teams usually square off in pretty tense affairs, and through the first half on Tuesday, that continued to be the case: Philly and Boston were tied at 63 heading into the locker room at halftime and didn’t show all that much rust after a long offseason.

James Harden was sensational in the first half, going for 22 points on 5-for-9 shooting and a 4-for-7 clip from behind the free throw line with some absolutely sensational grifting to get to the free throw line eight times. There was, however, one moment where he showed some of that rust, as Harden sent Marcus Smart (who, to be clear, might’ve embellished this a bit) flying with a crossover.

In a callback to his famous crossover on Wesley Johnson, Harden did a little shimmy after Smart hit the deck. Unfortunately for Harden, he could not finish the job, as he threw up a really terrible brick.

Harden did make up for this a little later, when he threw up this prayer that got answered by the basketball gods.

Still, we think The Beard is gonna want that first shot back.