Former All-Defensive Team point guard Patrick Beverley submitted a fascinating theory as to why he preferred future Hall of Fame shooting guard James Harden, now with the L.A. Clippers, over Hall of Fame shooting guard Dwyane Wade, in a new installment of his Barstool Sports show “The Pat Bev Podcast.”
Hold on @patbev21 might be on to something 🤔 pic.twitter.com/KFR76aocXG
— Pat Bev Pod (@PatBevPod) March 27, 2025
“Steph Curry’s going to play til he’s 40. James Harden’s going to play til he’s 40. Russell Westbrook’s going to play until he’s 40. Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant — these guys are going to play until they’re 40 years old. We haven’t seen that in the past, not at a high level.”
Obviously superstar Hall of Famers Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, both of whom were All-Stars at 40, are the exceptions that prove the rule about past legends burning out quicker than modern players.
“[Players born from] ’84 until 1990 might be the best era of basketball players to ever play basketball collectively,” Beverley declared. “Talent-wise, skill-wise, competitiveness-wise, and I mean longevity.”
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This group would include Beverley, a 1988 baby, but would actually exclude Leonard, who was born in 1991.
“I’ve seen the comparison with James Harden and [Dwyane Wade],” Beverley said. “While I’m taking James Harden over D-Wade, it’s only because of longevity, right? Between those years, it was something that we got from the older generation, the guys who played before us.”
Beverley laid out his case for why players of his and Harden’s generation combine the best of both worlds in terms of health and ability. Beverley also played alongside Harden on the Houston Rockets from 2012-17.
“They play a lot, they don’t lift a lot of weights but they play basketball a lot,” Beverley said. “They get injured arond 32, 33, they’re never the same. So we took that as, ‘Okay, we play a lot, but we’re gonna [work on our skills] a lot,’ which only is what the new generation does. They do skill, skill, skill but they don’t play a lot.”
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Wade was born in 1982, so he just misses out on Beverley’s group. It’s a fascinating exercise, and certainly the players he cites have the championship hardware to warrant inclusion among the all-timers. LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant all could be counted among the NBA’s top 20 players ever.
Wade may be a notch below that group, and a notch above Harden and Westbrook in this writer’s book, but all should easily make the league’s NBA 100 anniversary group in 2047.
Harden and Westbrook have both struggled with postseason success, a department in which Wade shone brightest. The 6-foot-4 Marquette product went to five NBA Finals and won three, including claiming the 2006 Finals MVP.
Although his knee issues did ultimately slow down the 13-time All-Star for good in his early 30s and he didn’t have the shooting range Harden displays, Wade was still a dominant talent in his day.
Harden and Westbrook have each only been to one NBA Finals, together, with the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2012, which they lost to Wade’s Miami Heat.
Over 1,141 career regular season games in a 16-year career (so far), Harden (who has won one MVP to Wade’s zero) boasts career averages of 24.1 points on .439/.363/.861 shooting splits, 7.2 assists and 5.6 rebounds.
JAMES HARDEN with the range… WAY BACK 👌
back-to-back-to-back threes 😳 pic.twitter.com/cbwTrkpFRj
— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) March 27, 2025
Wade appeared in “just” 1,054 games in his own 16-year career, averaging 22.0 points on 48 percent field goal shooting and 76.5 percent free throw shooting, 5.4 assists, and 4.7 rebounds per. But Wade was also an elite defender in his prime, and made three All-Defensive Teams.
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