James Harden drew 122 three-point fouls last year, nearly 80 more than the next closest NBA player. Over the past five years, there’s been no player more adept at drawing fouls and getting to the free throw line than Harden, who has led the league four times in that category, including each of the last three seasons.
Harden’s ability to create contact in his shooting motion is a skill, but it’s one that many fans are turned off by. The constant march to the free throw line by Harden is something reviled by many NBA fans and the league took steps this summer to try and keep Harden’s tendencies from spreading around the league.
The “James Harden Rule,” as it’s unofficially referred, was instituted this summer with the idea of keeping players from taking contact and then gathering for a shot. The rule prevents players from being rewarded with a shooting foul if the contact occurs prior to their gather into the shooting motion, thus trying to avoid what essentially become continuation plays beyond the three-point line.
The rule change is understandable, but has created a gray area for officials when it comes to determining when contact occurred relative to the gather in real time. So far this preseason, it has already impacted Harden with what the league has deemed some missed calls and caused him some frustration.
As he told Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, when the regular season rolls around he expects it to not be an issue because “a foul is a foul.”
“It better not be an issue,” Harden said. “I study the game so much. I’m a student of the game. Every year I come back, I try to be better. A foul is a foul no matter where it is being called. It’s a foul. You can’t pick and choose when not to call fouls.”
Per Feigen, the league has ruled that on two occasions this preseason Harden has drawn fouls on drives that should have resulted in shooting fouls that were instead ruled to be on the floor. Whenever there are new points of emphasis for officials or tweaks to rules interpretations, there will be a learning period for the officials. That said Harden says they need to “figure it out” sooner than later because he won’t be changing his game.
“Whatever it is, they better figure it out,” Harden said. “I’m still going to do what I do, still be aggressive and try to help my team get wins.
“This is what I do, and I do it at a high level.”
Harden’s mastery of the art of drawing fouls is unmatched at the NBA level, and the vast majority of the shooting fouls he draws still fall under the parameters of the new rule. What seems to be most frustrating for Harden isn’t the rule change but the confusion it will undoubtedly cause with what is and isn’t a shooting foul, and how that can lead to missed calls and, thus, missed opportunities for him to get two foul shots.
