Trail Blazers forward Moe Harkless finished the 2016-17 NBA regular season shooting 35.1 percent from behind the three-point line. And while that might seem like a pretty insignificant stat to you—we’d guess that casual NBA fans probably wouldn’t even know what team Harkless was on if we hadn’t just told you—the stat is very significant to Harkless.
It’s not because he set some goal to shoot over 35 percent from three for the season, either. Rather, it’s because Harkless had a clause in his contract that called for him to receive a $500,000 bonus if he shot above 35 percent from three for the season. And with four games to go on the year, he was sitting pretty at 35.1 percent. But as you might imagine, that put some pressure on him. If he went out and had an 0-for-5 night from deep, his $500K bonus would be put into serious jeopardy.
So Harkless did what any smart person would do with four games to go and $500K well within his reach—he stopped shooting the ball. That’s right. Harkless played 88 minutes for the Trail Blazers over their final four games of the regular season (worth noting: He sat out one of the games against the Spurs), and he didn’t take a single three-pointer. He took other shots, and during his team’s final game of the season against the Pelicans, he actually shot the ball well and finished 5-for-6 from the field. But he refused to take any shots at all from behind the three-point line.
It’s not because Harkless didn’t have any opportunities to take threes. But he made it his mission not to shoot them. Before the Blazers game against the Pelicans on Wednesday, he was asked if he would try a three and he responded by saying, "Would you?"
And we have to say: We don’t blame him one bit. If the Blazers were still trying to make a playoff push when he stopped jacking up threes, that would have been a different story. But they clinched a spot in the postseason prior to Harkless’ shooting hiatus, so you can’t really fault him for doing the smart thing and shutting it down. You also can’t fault him for bragging about it on Instagram after the game:
Get your money, man. That might go down as the easiest $500K you’ll ever make.
