James Harden still thinks he should have gotten the NBA’s MVP award last year

James Harden has said it before and he’ll say it again.

“I know I was the MVP,” the Houston Rockets star told NBA.com. “That’s 100% given all the things that happened last season.”

That quote is from an article that was posted Wednesday, about five months after Harden finished second in the voting for the league’s most valuable player award to Golden State’s Stephen Curry.

“That award means most valuable to your team,” Harden continued. “We finished second in the West, which nobody thought we were going to do at the beginning of the year even when everybody was healthy. We were near the top in having the most injuries. We won our division in a division where every single team made the playoffs.

“There’s so many factors. I led the league in total points scored, minutes played. Like I said, I’m not taking anything away from Steph, but I felt I deserved the Most Valuable Player. That stays with me.”

Just for good measure, he added: “I am the best player in the league. I believe that. I thought I was last year, too.”

Indeed, he did feel the same way last season. Here’s what he had to say on the same website a month before the MVP voting:

“I feel as though I am the MVP,” Harden said. “I think the MVP is the most valuable player to your team. Obviously you have to be winning and be one of the top teams in this league and we are.

“I’m not taking credit away from anybody else in the league. But I’ve been consistent all year. I’ve just been doing the right things to put my team in situations to win, considering all of the different circumstances we’ve had to deal with.”

In other words, not much has changed this season. Except that Harden seems to have a little bit of extra motivation.

“You don’t think I can do more?” Harden said in Wednesday’s article. “Just wait. I’ll show you.”

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