Well whatya know: Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander shares the same MVP sentiments as NBA Twitter.
During a conference call about his funding for various local charities, Alexander told reporters that he believes the league’s MVP race is down to James Harden and Russell Westbrook, per ESPN.com’s Calvin Watkins:
In a conference call with reporters talking about rewarding several charities with funding, Rockets owner Leslie Alexander said the MVP race is between James Harden and Russell Westbrook. “I think we’re winning a lot more games,” Alexander said. “So maybe he should be the MVP over Russ.”
Alexander isn’t technically wrong.
Westbrook has been a monster, averaging a triple-double and slaughtering opposing defenses on a nightly basis. His individual defense hasn’t been good, but he’s keeping the Oklahoma City Thunder relevant merely months after they lost two of their three best players, in Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka.
But Harden has been equally bonkers after assuming full-time point guard responsibilities. He leads the league in assists per game and is averaging 27.7 points with efficiency nearly identical to last season’s marks. And as Alexander said, the Rockets are winning more, which MVP voters are inherently more attracted to.
That doesn’t mean Harden is actually more valuable than Westbrook. If you took Harden off the Rockets, they would be better than the Thunder would be without Westbrook. But MVP arguments go beyond those fundamental glances, and with the Thunder hovering around sixth-seed territory in the West, Harden should be deemed the early-season favorite.
Though, of course, LeBron James may have something to say about all of this.
