Finally, there was no excuse.
After years of keeping James Harden off the podium he thoroughly deserved to stand upon, the NBA fully embraced The Beard’s greatness as Harden was awarded his first Most Valuable Player Award and first for the Houston Rockets since 1994.
Ironically, you could argue that the the 2017-18 season was Harden’s weakest in terms of statistics. Look past the scoring average and you’ll see a noticeable dip in assist and rebounding numbers. The lack of dimes can be attributed to Chris Paul’s presence and the rebounding numbers are certainly due to Clint Capela’s emergence.