James Harden went viral for his off-court reaction for once when he saw his girlfriend catch a wedding bouquet, but who is Jessyka Janshel and what do we know about the partner of the Los Angeles Clippers‘ star?
Tradition dictates that the woman who catches the bouquet is then the next in the cohort to be married, meaning Harden will need to start thinking about a different kind of ring in this NBA offseason.
He went viral for his funny reaction when he clearly looked concerned with wide eyes as his girlfriend caught the flowers, aware of the implications of making one of her life-long dreams come true.
Born in 1991, Jessyka Janshel is a 33-year-old model and influencer who has managed to amass a massive 600,000 followers on the Meta-owned Instagram social media platform, which is where she might have caught the NBA star’s eye.
They met in 2017, around the time that Harden broke up with Khloe Kardashian, and they’ve been very secretive ever since as they clearly value their private lives together. They don’t even have photos on social media.
According to the web, Janshel dropped out of college to pursue her modelling career dream and landed one of her first gigs with FacetStudios before experiencing modest popularity in 2015 when she began to appear on magazines and in music videos.
She grew up attending Chavez High School before going on to do an undergraduate degree at Prairie View A&M University, which she later left early.
Harden hails Kobe as NBA GOAT
Kobe Bryant will influence future generations of basketball for years after his untimely death in 2020 during a helicopter crash, which stunned the world, but he even influenced those old enough to play next to him as Harden leaped on the praise.
For Harden, it’s not LeBron James, Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson who he will forever hail as the greatest of all time. To him, it will always be Black Mamba.
“I mean, there was only one person who made me love, I mean fall in love with the game, and that’s Kobe Bryant,” Harden said to HoopsHype. “Being from LA and being a Lakers fan watching him grow up and win several championships and his passion and love and what he did for the game of basketball.
“I think the world, you know, feels the same way, but that’s why I started playing basketball. The skill set and things that I’ve learned, I kind of picked up on my own, but as far as falling in love with the game, it’s definitely been Kobe.”