Longtime NBA awards voter Brian Windhorst admits he got it wrong when voting for MVP in 2018. During an appearance on First Take on Thursday, Windhorst explained why he regrets voting for James Harden as MVP over LeBron James.
“I just wanna say I have a few regrets, okay? One of my regrets is in 2017-2018, which was the last year LeBron played in Cleveland, that I didn’t vote for LeBron for MVP,” Windhorst said. “I just gave Harden all those flowers. Harden won the MVP that year, and I voted for him for MVP, and I do regret that vote.
“Because the longer I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve realized how great LeBron was in this season,” Windhorst continued. “He was 33 years old, the Cavs, Kyrie (Irving) had been traded, and they were the fourth seed. He played every single game that year: 82 games. He led the league in minutes. His stats were very good. He’s had better statistical seasons, but his stats were very good.”
Windhorst was extremely impressed by how James carried that Cleveland Cavaliers team to the NBA Finals. The Cavaliers swept the top-seeded Toronto Raptors in the Conference Semifinals and then edged past the Boston Celtics in seven games in the Conference Finals to set up a rematch with the Golden State Warriors in the Finals.
The Warriors swept the Cavaliers, but not before James had given them an almighty scare by scoring 51 points in Game 1. Had it not been for J. R. Smith’s infamous gaffe at the end of regulation, that series might have ended up being rather interesting.
While James should be commended for his postseason heroics, those performances ultimately had no bearing on the MVP award. It is a regular-season award, and while LeBron had a good case to win it, Harden had a better one.
James averaged 27.5 points, 8.6 rebounds, 9.1 assists, 1.4 steals, and 0.9 blocks per game in 2017-18 while leading the Cavaliers to a 50-32 record. His getting the team the fourth seed following Kyrie Irving’s departure was incredible, as the supporting cast was mediocre at best. It was undoubtedly a great season for James, but not great enough to win MVP.
Harden won the scoring title in 2018-19 by averaging 30.4 points, 5.4 rebounds, 8.8 assists, 1.8 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game. He also led the Houston Rockets to an outstanding 65-17 record, the best in the NBA by a fair bit (Raptors 59-23).
Sure, Harden had a better supporting cast than James, but none of his teammates, not even Chris Paul, made the All-Star team. This was not a case of one candidate being on a super stacked team, which helped them get a far better record. Don’t get me wrong, the Rockets were a much better-built team, but they were hardly the Kevin Durant–Stephen Curry Warriors.
Put all that together, and you get an idea of why Harden won the award fairly easily that year. He got 86 first-place votes compared to just 15 for James. You can certainly argue that LeBron deserved to win more than four MVP awards in his career, but Harden was the right winner in 2018.
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