Russell Westbrook beats out James Harden for 2016-17 NBA MVP

John McEnroe chimed in and stated clearly that James Harden is the MVP below the latitude of 34° 45' 47" N. And that is that.

 

The following 10 reporters voted Harden third.

Andrew Sharp
Jeff McDonald
Jerry Zgoda
Justin Verrier
Kevin Harlan
Mark Kestecher
Michelle Beadle
Sean Deveney
Tim Reynolds
TJ Manotoc

Which means they both valued the stats (Westbrook) and the winning (Kawhi), yet for some reason refused to value the combination of the two that was by far the best.

Very illogical.

 

If entertainers(that's what some of them are let's be honest) like this can vote then just let the fans pick MVP. It's not much of a difference honestly.

 

KD talking about Harden

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB_4C2Gl7Zfg4uBXk_AcWwA/community

 

Thanks for pulling all of those names out

 

After that last game against San Antonio, I'm not even mad about this.

 

Not surprised even before the game 6 blunder I think we all knew Russ was getting it.

 

"10x the competitor" and yet still not an over all better player than Harden.

Weird.

Couldn't even get unanimous 1st team all NBA being "10x the competitor".

Also weird.

 

10x competitor=plays angry

As silly as it sounds, that's really a HUGE deal for people. It doesn't matter if Harden wins more and is more efficient, the fact that Westbrook is ferocious makes him "better"

 

Aesthetics count BIG in today's voting culture.

 

It's more than playing angry. If push come to shove, WB will dive outta bounds to save a loose ball when needed. He'll do what's necessary to secure a offensive rebound to seal the game. He'll guard the opposing guard if needed. Harden does none of that. If Harden's playing a bad game offensively he immediately becomes obsolete. When his shot is off, or when he's not getting calls, he completely becomes disinterested. I've NEVER seen WB disinterested

 

Spoiler: KD giving props to harden

 

^ We've got to stop saying this.

Getting it out of the way, yes, we know that James has issues and could improve and steel himself mentally more, especially during playoffs. This is Clutchfans; every possible thing wrong with Harden has been discussed.

However...

a) Losing an award is not going to provide enough emotional fire to drive a person through 82 grueling games and then the playoffs. In fact, if it does, that person's probably going to end up as a self-interested stat padder looking for their individual award. Not the best for the team.

b) Looking at regular season performances, how much more can the guy do?

The first time he got screwed, he carried a cripplingly-injured team entirely on his back to the Western Conference Finals. But that year, "Most Valuable Player" meant "Best Player on Best Team." The players, when they voted, knew what it actually meant.

This year, some have argued he had the greatest offensive season ever. At the very least, he transitioned to a new position and became an assist monster. Led the league in total assists and assists per game. (Source) Continued to score monstrously as well. But this year, the award meant...I dunno..."averaged a triple-double by grabbing rebounds a person has no business grabbing." Westbrook also had the most total missed shots in the league.

James had a ridiculous regular season. Twice. What more can he do? Who knows what "MVP" will mean next year? He's been robbed, though, and he should probably just accept that it's going to be like that and focus everything on what he can do to fix himself up to take this team further into the playoffs.

 

Have a feeling that "Harden will never win an MVP" will become the new "Leo will never win an Oscar".

 

In the past three seasons, James Harden has 97.2% of the winshares of 2-time MVP Steph Curry, and has 113.7% of the winshares of any other NBA player. He played for a 2 seed and a 3 seed in the more difficult conference, sharing the court with zero all-stars in those three years. He has missed two games in three years and leads all NBA players in total and per game scoring over that period. He has played 5.7% more regular-season NBA minutes in that period than any other person in the world.

At a certain point leaving his achievements unrecognized starts to look a little stupid.

 

Interesting. I didn't even know YouTube had its own social media page. I don't know anyone else who uses YouTube to post content as some sort of Facebook/Instragram hybrid.

 

Absolutely, his competitive drive and heart have won me over. I'll take that any day over the loser mindset of Harden. Do yourself a favor and watch game 6 again. How anyone can support him after that is truly the dumbest sh*t I've ever seen.

 

Westbrook. Harden sucks on D. He doesn't ignore it to sit in the lane and chase boards.

 

So you're a genius that supports a loser? Right... Go watch game 6 genius. I'd love to embed this with gifs of Harden passing from that game, but I'm trying to find the one of him at the club afterwards with the crowd chanting VIP, oops I mean MVP. I'm sure you were one of those geniuses in the crowd too huh?

 

Someone mentioned. . . . .Harden not being married could be an issue
it's weird thought until until you see that You have to go back a while
to find an unmarried MVP . . . Even Dirks had recently gotten married

Rocket River