Given that he CLEARLY should be the MVP front runner currently, and all the stats he's compiled up to this point...what could he actually do that would sway any voters? Put up 80? and if he did, would they just say that indicated how padded his stats are?
When even Sam Amick, an often Harden support is voting for Giannis, you know Harden will lose by a landslide.
Yeah, but we really need another serious realistic thread about Harden not winning because we've only had about a half-dozen so far.
I'd be curious to see what NBA players think (not that they are always less biased than the actual voters...but they probably understand and respect what Harden has been doing moreso than the talking rear ends. Hmmm, we HAVE that data! and the winner is....
Yes, who cares....win a ring, and get the MVP there... TEAM GOALS over individual ones. Right now Harden is trending towards Ewing and Barkley more than a championship player - he needs to lead a team to a ring. DD
Nah...one night wouldn't change a thing...unless Harden did something REALLY extraordinary. ie, it could only have gone up and even that would have been pretty hard. Especially amongst the players. Far more so than the talking rear ends (and many fans), they get that its an 82 game season. What happened last night is 1/82 of that...hard to swing the needle. I doubt it changed their opinions at all. Especially when he had 39 pts and 10 rebounds? If nearly getting 40 and 10 DROPS his standing...that just shows how messed up it was to start with. How many games better than that did Giannis have? Maybe one? Also, consider that one of the biggest proponents of how great Wilt was was....Bill Russell. Even though his team won most of the matchups, he understood Wilt's greatness, better than anyone. Players get it...because they play the game too.
I want Harden to feel slighted - and want to show the world that trophy should be his ala Hakeem in 95. Win a ring and finals MVP. DD
The rockets that are seating at 4th seed are really bad news for Harden to win MVP this year, but he has a chance to do it next year for MVP. Do not know that if this team can win a title ever with old CP3 and the coach who was always bad luck?
Sadly, I feel even though Harden deserves it, Harden now will finish 2nd: 1) Houston finishing 4th instead of 2nd in the West is major 2) Harden's missed free throw at the end of the OKC game on national television (TNT) will hurt him 3) Some members of the media have shameless dislike/jealousy of Harden and his style of play.
There is almost little a chance for him to take this team to win it all because the east teams will be better next year, the GS is still better in this year. The rockets can not get better because of CP3 contract.
I think it's literally just point number 3. The year Westbrook had the crazy stats we had the better record and Westbrook won even with Harden playing lights out. This season Harden has had an all time great season, we beat GSW 3-1 (last year's champs), meanwhile the Bucks freaking get swept by last years wooden spooners. It's a marathon, not a sprint. But seriously, just embrace the hate Harden and Houston get.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/lebron-james-space-jam-2-cast-not-set-1200696 Just as NIKE is keeping Adidas and UA players out of Space Jam 2, they are also probably influencing some voters to not vote Adidas and UA players for MVP, unless forced by circumstances (no true NIKE contenders). Reggie Miller, who never voted Harden for MVP, has always been a NIKE man, and it's not hard to imagine that other voters, like Broussards, might probably get plenty of "christmas gifts" (wink wink) from NIKE with the assumption that in case of a close race, the NIKE player is to be voted. I'd like to see one of those sports blogs like The Ringer do some sort of investigation about the relationship between many of these media mvp voters and NIKE.