James Harden says he’s a lot more concerned about the Houston Rockets getting healthy post All-Star break, than repeating as the NBA’s most valuable player this season.
“I’m not worried about MVP,” Harden told reporters this weekend.
The Beard leads the League in scoring at 36.6 points a night, and has poured in 30+ in thirty one consecutive games, tying Wilt Chamberlain for the second-longest such streak in NBA history.
Per The Athletic:
“I’m not worried about MVP,” he said in Charlotte. “I’m just excited for the second half of the season and getting a full, healthy roster and taking it from there.”
Much has been made over a conversation during the weekend between Golden State’s Steph Curry and Milwaukee Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer.Per their talk, Curry, in speaking to Harden to congratulate him on his 31-game scoring streak, discovered that Harden doesn’t necessarily want to keep playing basketball in this heavy-ISO manner. It certainly made ripples on #NBATwitter.
Yet, it’s not necessarily breaking news that Harden would prefer not to dominate the ball possession after possession, game after game. That’s the reason they went out and got Chris Paul and Eric Gordon in the first place.
Harden agrees with Kobe Bryant’s sentiments that the ISO style won’t win a team a championship. “Honestly, we had a funky first half of the season,” Harden explained. “So I just try to do whatever it takes to keep our head above water. During that stretch I was getting double-teamed or triple-teamed. I was just trying to find ways to win and the points were just adding up.”
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