This is the whole quote He campaigned for himself, and shifted the blame towards the media, while never saying anything negative about Giannis. He didn't say "He doesn't deserve to win because he can't shoot" THAT's dissing someone's game. If you can't understand that, then I don't know what to tell you.
And Curry was exceptional also. He scored more efficiently and his pt totals would be similar of Curry played more 4th quarter minutes.
Dude it just takes some simple deductive reasoning to see how saying that narrative was the reason why he lost is implying that Gainnis didn't deserve it. Look, other players thought they deserved MVP over the actual winner. Hakeem did also but he kept it more personal with only his teammates and just showed it on his on court play in the WCF. Gainnis is just returning the favor. If Harden wants to get the "bad defense" label off of him he should move his feet more. I would say he has shown more effort on defense since going small ball this season and is willing to move his feet more so that's a positive sign.
And Kobe never embellished contact? Plus, the "snap-back/arm flail" hasn't been Harden's main thing for a while now. I'd even argue it was never his "go-to". I pick Harden going downhill over almost anyone because of his strength to finish through contact, his craftiness (and lefty-ness) and his deceptive explosiveness when healthy--which he hasn't been for a month or so.
But you can't say that his point totals would have been similar if he played more 4th quarter minutes because Curry didn't. We can't take hypothetical numbers into account when voting, right? Not that we have a vote anyway, but still.
I can’t wait til Giannis athleticism goes bye bye..this dude literally has no skills other than dunking and pushing people on offense.
Well the scoring difference wasn't that large and seeing the large mpg difference and knowing that the reason is merely the Warriors just had absurd or differentials so often rather than minute restrictions because Curry is incapable of playing more minutes along with him scoring more efficiently tells me that he probably could match his pt total.
If Harden has any pride he would take Giannis' comments as an insult and stay a plus defender for the rest of the season / playoffs let the hate fuel you
Your reasoning here is sound, but here's why I don't think it should have anything to do with MVP voting. We should only be taking account what's on the paper in front of us. What might have happened if x did y shouldn't be an argument for who's a more worthy MVP because at the end of the day, imaginary stats in imaginary minutes, well-reasoned as they may be, have as much value as me saying well If Curry played 3 extra minutes every game he would have shat himself each game and fingered Draymond Green. That would definitely have hurt his chances. But we don't take that into account because it didn't happen, or at least not that I know of. Well anyhow, let's agree to disagree. I think James Harden should've been the 14-15 MVP, and hopefully my reasoning was solid for the most part.
I would say that the race was close enough where if Harden did win it, he would also deserve it also. 14-15 Harden and 17-18 Harden are the best versions of Harden imo
Honestly this is one of the first times I've seen general NBA fan base side with Harden. r/NBA on Reddit is calling Gainnis petty. Probably because Gainnis has multiple times tried to diss Harden in less than a week and at this point looks like a petty one sided beef. Like I understand Harden last season making the "narrative" MVP comments last season but at least that was in context of people asking him to make his case for the MVP while Gainnis is bringing up Harden out of thin air.
FG% at the rim Kobe .634 Harden .636 % of FGA at the rim Kobe 21% Harden 27% Harden gets to the rim more and finishes just the same
