Over the weekend, a clip surfaced of a James Harden and Scottie Barnes open gym battle as they geared up for the NBA season. The Toronto Raptors’ 2nd year forward was picking up Harden full court in a pick-up game, not something you see too often. The first thing that comes to mind was Devin Booker yelling about double teams in an open gym. The next thing was, “damn, that’s some intense effort for a pick-up game.” It was one clip, so it was difficult to tell if Harden was peeved like Booker or if Harden enjoyed Barnes challenging him up the court.
Scottie Barnes vs James Harden
— Camisa 23 | NBA (@camisa_23) August 8, 2022
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Open Gym Battle
It’s always wise to remember not to get carried away with any small snippet of summer runs and workouts. The Pro-Ams are fun to watch, where you get to see NBA stars team up with each other and create highlights. Open gyms are interesting because sometimes you get a grip of NBA players from all over on one court. Whether you like player movement or not, seeing different teammates is cool. The workout videos…don’t get me started on those and what it means for a player’s bag.
Back to the initial video, it might be easy to react to Harden’s inability to shake Barnes. Remember, it was ONE play. I’m sure Raptors fans are drooling over the defense on a premier ball handler. Raptors fans never overreact (I like you Raptors fans, don’t worry). To me, what really stood out was the effort. It almost seemed like a drill over a pick-up game. Two guys who clearly have competitive respect for each other going at it.
Competitive Respect
I was curious how Harden, entering his 14th year, would take to this kind of defense from a guy off his rookie year. The clip later in the run of Harden praising the effort and intensity of everyone, highlighting Barnes specifically, told us what we needed to know. The vet loved it.
James Harden showing respect to young Scottie Barnes ! Raptors are officially a practice team to us. pic.twitter.com/Bs8AjRDIda
— BADGUY (@TheBadGuy_NBAOG) August 8, 2022
What really stood out was the embrace of competition and work from Harden. It serves as a great reminder of how committed so many of these guys are to their craft. There is a time and place for a full-court pick-up in an open gym. Sometimes, the focus might be more on the half-court game, so you let the ball handler freely bring the ball up. But this was clearly, “go time” for the guys.
To see both players’ competitiveness in a short clip get backed up by the leader of the run that’s the insight we don’t typically get. It was the visual and verbal representation of the saying iron sharpens iron. We have one guy trying to extend his all-star level play. We have the other looking to break into that upper echelon. Neither will get there by shying away from a challenge.
To have Harden, despite coming up short on the particular play, reinforce the effort Scottie brought is what competition is all about. Sometimes you will get got. Other times you will win. It’s the competitors who relish the challenge and keep coming back for more. Hopefully, we get a recreation, or three, of this scene during the season.
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