James Harden was hardly the first player in the NBA to sport a beard. Flipping the pages of history shows us that Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Walton, Walt Frazier, and many other players had grown their facial hair, and in today’s NBA, athletes like Kyle O’Quinn, Nikola Mirotic, Chris Paul, and Quincy Acy have grown impressive beards. Yet something is different about Harden. As said by his mother, Monja Willis: “The beard is his trademark now.”

What’s interesting is that Harden’s older brother, Akili Roberson, a barber, never cared about growing a beard. Neither had their dad nor uncles. And while the big brother occasionally loves to think it was he who inspired Harden to grow his beard, the NBA player would rather not give him the credit. “You see his beard? It’s terrible, I didn’t get it from him,” Harden once hilariously pointed out. It was in his second year at Arizona State that he began experimenting with his facial hair, and one summer, he decided to simply line it up neatly instead of cutting it. That went on to become his look later.

Fans began noticing him during his three years with the Thunder, and ‘Fear the Beard’ T-shirts were dedicated to him. But now, with years in the NBA, there are hardly any people who have seen him without his beard. And so, when a photograph of him went viral without his signature facial hair, the internet couldn’t stop talking about it. Did he really clean-shave?

If you’re active on social media, there’s a good chance that you have seen pictures of Harden wearing what appears to be a Clippers training kit and without his beard. But before you start believing that ‘The Beard’ has shaved off his beard, hold on. When the EssentiallySports Fact Check team did a quick background search, there was no substantial information to confirm that Harden has done away with his identity. The picture might be AI-generated, with a background that looks like a workout session.

If we have a look at the player’s Instagram account, there is no proof that he shaved off his beard.

However, such rumors regarding Harden are nothing new. If we go back to 2023 and 2024, there were speculations about him shaving his beard.

Scott Pera: James Harden’s Artesia High School coach witnessed “the first follicle” 

In 2023, an image from Harden’s high school days went viral. The picture was from 2005, and the young player had short hair and no beard. But it was in 2018 that his high school coach had shared with ‘The Athletic’ how Harden could barely grow a beard back then. “I saw the first follicle. No way he could have grown that in high school, not even close. I don’t know if he had peach fuzz. He couldn’t grow it, no matter what he says.”

The coach later left the school to join Arizona State as an assistant coach, and Harden promised he would follow him there. And when the player arrived on campus, he began growing a bit of a beard, somewhat similar to Bill Walton’s chinstrap style.

Harden once said, “It’s branded for sure. You might not know my name but you know that beard from somewhere. Same thing with Jordan. You know that sign with him spreading his legs in the air with the ball. It’s a cool feeling.” And while having a big beard means getting food stuck in it occasionally, when the player was asked in 2018 if he would ever cut it off, his answer was “No!”

The only way to get him to shave, as per his own confession in 2022, would be “$10 million minimum.”